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Marta Beňačková
Marta Beňačková (born 29 August 1953, in Bratislava) is a Slovak mezzo-soprano who has had an active performing career since the 1970s in concerts, operas, and recitals. Biography Beňačková attended the Bratislava Conservatory where she earned a degree in piano performance. She pursued further studies in singing at the Slovakia: Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (VŠMU). She began her career as a member of the ancient music ensemble Musica Aeterna. She left the group to pursue a solo career, and has since performed in a wide array of works from the concert repertoire that encompasses symphonic, oratorio and vocal pieces from the 17th through the 21st centuries. She has appeared in concert with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Symphony, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra among other ensembles. On the opera stage, Beňačková has particularly excelled in portraying roles in operas by Verdi and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slovaks
The Slovaks ( (historical Sloveni ), singular: ''Slovák'' (historical: ''Sloven'' ), feminine: ''Slovenka'' , plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak the Slovak language. In Slovakia, 4.4 million are ethnic Slovaks of 5.4 million total population. There are Slovak minorities in many neighboring countries including Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine and sizeable populations of immigrants and their descendants in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States among others, which are collectively referred to as the Slovak diaspora. Name The name ''Slovak'' is derived from ''*Slověninъ'', plural ''*Slověně'', the old name of the Slavs ( Proglas, around 863). The original stem has been preserved in all Slovak words except the masculine noun; the feminine noun is ''Slovenka'', the adjective is ''slovensk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Turnovský
Martin Turnovský (29 September 1928 – 19 May 2021) was a Czech conductor whose career flourished under the guidance of George Szell, but was hampered by the communist regime. Biography Turnovský was born in Prague. As a boy, he showed promise as a pianist, though hopes of progressing further with this were dashed when the Nazis invaded in 1939. During World War II, at the age of 16, Turnovský was imprisoned in a German concentration camp, due to his partially Jewish origin. He studied conducting at the Prague Academy of Music as a pupil of Karel Ančerl. His father was familiar with the conductor George Szell, who helped in the beginnings of Turnovský's career. Szell invited Turnovsky to study with him in New York, though Czechoslovakia's communist regime forbade it. So he trained with provincial Czech orchestras instead. Even so, he observed that Szell's conducting style "lacked warmth" and he based his style on Leonard Bernstein instead as he wanted to "enthuse" the mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czech Operatic Mezzo-sopranos
Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surname) *Czech, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland *Czechville, Wisconsin, unincorporated community, United States See also * Čech, a surname * Czech lands * Czechoslovakia * List of Czechs * * * Check (other) * Czechoslovak (other) * Czech Republic (other) * Czechia (other) Czechia is the official short form name of the Czech Republic. Czechia may also refer to: * Historical Czech lands *Czechoslovakia (1918–1993) *Czech Socialist Republic (1969–1990) *Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1939–1945) See also ... {{disambiguation Language and nationality disambiguation pages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Living People
Purpose: Because living persons may suffer personal harm from inappropriate information, we should watch their articles carefully. By adding an article to this category, it marks them with a notice about sources whenever someone tries to edit them, to remind them of WP:BLP (biographies of living persons) policy that these articles must maintain a neutral point of view, maintain factual accuracy, and be properly sourced. Recent changes to these articles are listed on Special:RecentChangesLinked/Living people. Organization: This category should not be sub-categorized. Entries are generally sorted by family name In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give .... Maintenance: Individuals of advanced age (over 90), for whom there has been no new documentation in the last ten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1953 Births
Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugoslavia. ** The CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the UFO phenomenon. * January 15 ** Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying. ** British security forces in West Germany arrest 7 members of the Naumann Circle, a clandestine Neo-Nazi organization. * January 19 – 71.1% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into '' I Love Lucy'', to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky, which is more people than those who tune into Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration the next day. This record is never broken. * January 24 ** Mau Mau Uprising: Rebels in Kenya kill the Ruck family (father, mother, and six-year-old son). ** Leader of East Germany Walter Ulbricht announces that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gabriela Beňačková
Gabriela Beňačková also Gabriela Beňačková-Čápová (born 25 March 1944 or 1947) is a Slovak lyric soprano. Life and career Beňačková was born in Bratislava on 25 March in either 1944 or 1947. Her father Antonín was a lawyer, and her mother Elena was a housewife. She is the younger sister of television presenter Nora Beňačková. In her young age she had been involved in ballet lessons, children's choir of Czechoslovakian Radio, and learned singing and piano at school. Beňačková specializes in the music of her Slovak compatriots, particularly Eugen Suchoň, as well as Czech composers, notably Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček. She is considered to be one of the greatest 'Jenůfa's' in Janáček's opera of the same name. Her Carnegie Hall performance, and subsequent Metropolitan Opera run with Leonie Rysanek, are considered to be legendary. In 1981, Czechoslovakian television starred Ms Beňačková in a definitive version of ''Prodaná n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rusalka (opera)
''Rusalka'' (), Op. 114, is an opera ('lyric fairy tale') by Antonín Dvořák. His ninth opera (1900–1901), it became his most successful, frequenting the standard repertoire worldwide. Jaroslav Kvapil wrote the libretto on Karel Jaromír Erben's and Božena Němcová's fairy tales. The rusalka is a water sprite from Slavic mythology; it usually inhabits a lake or river. For many years unfamiliarity with Dvořák's operas outside the Czech lands helped reinforce a perception that composition of operas was a marginal activity, and that despite the beauty of its melodies and orchestral timbres ''Rusalka'' was not a central part of his output or of international lyric theatre. In recent years it has been performed more regularly by major opera companies. In the five seasons from 2008 to 2013 it was performed by opera companies worldwide far more than all of Dvořák's other operas combined. The most popular excerpt from ''Rusalka'' is the soprano aria, the "Song to the Moon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8September 18411May 1904) was a Czech composer. He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák's style has been described as "the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them," and Dvořák has been described as "arguably the most versatile... composer of his time". Dvořák displayed his musical gifts at an early age, being a talented violin student. The first public performances of his works were in Prague in 1872 and, with special success, in 1873, when he was 31 years old. Seeking recognition beyond the Prague area, he submitted scores of symphonies and other works to German and Austrian competitions. He did not win a prize until 1874, with Johannes Brahms on the jury of the Austrian State Competit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Queen Of Spades (opera)
''The Queen of Spades'' or ''Pique Dame'', Op. 68 (, ''Pikovaya dama'' , ) is an opera in three acts (seven scenes) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on the 1834 novella of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, but with a dramatically altered plot. The premiere took place in 1890 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Composition history The Imperial Theatre offered Tchaikovsky a commission to write an opera based on the plot sketch by Ivan Vsevolozhsky in 1887/88. After first turning it down, Tchaikovsky accepted it in 1889. Toward the end of that year, he met the theatre's managers to discuss the material and sketch out some of the scenes. He completed the full score in Florence in only 44 days. Later, working with the tenor who was to perform the lead character, he created two versions of Herman's aria in the seventh scene, using different keys. The changes can be found in the proof sheets and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its Prague metropolitan area, metropolitan area is home to approximately 2.3 million people. Prague is a historical city with Romanesque architecture, Romanesque, Czech Gothic architecture, Gothic, Czech Renaissance architecture, Renaissance and Czech Baroque architecture, Baroque architecture. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia and residence of several Holy Roman Emperors, most notably Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV (r. 1346–1378) and Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II (r. 1575–1611). It was an important city to the Habsburg monarchy and Austria-Hungary. The city played major roles in the Bohemian Reformation, Bohemian and the Protestant Reformations, the Thirty Years' War and in 20th-century history a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Theatre (Prague)
The National Theatre () is a historic opera house in Prague, Czech Republic. It is known as the alma mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art. The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition, which helped to preserve and develop the most important features of the nation–the Czech language and a sense for a Czech musical and dramatic way of thinking. Today the National Theatre consists of three artistic ensembles: opera, ballet and drama. They alternate in their performances in the historic building of the National Theatre, in the State Opera, in the Estates Theatre and in the Kolowrat Theatre. All three artistic ensembles select their repertoire both from classical heritage, and modern authors. Initial design and construction, 1844 to 1881 The cornerstone of the National Theatre was laid on 16 May 1868, but the idea of building a theatre dates back to the autumn of 1844 at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orlando Furioso
''Orlando furioso'' (; ''The Frenzy of Orlando'') is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532. ''Orlando furioso'' is a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's unfinished romance ''Orlando innamorato'' (''Orlando in Love'', published posthumously in 1495). In its historical setting and characters, it shares some features with the Old French ''La Chanson de Roland">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... ''La Chanson de Roland'' of the eleventh century, which tells of the death of Roland. The story is also a chivalric romance which stemmed from a tradition beginning in the late Middle Ages and continuing in popularity in the 16th century and well into the 17th. Orlando is the Christian knight known in French (and subsequently Englis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
