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Roberto De Simone
Roberto De Simone (; 25 August 1933 – 6 April 2025) was an Italian stage director, academic teacher, playwright, composer and ethnomusicologist. Beginning as a harpsichordist, he turned to research of early Italian music and co-founded the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare to perform it. The musical '' La Gatta Cenerentola'', that he authored, composed and directed, was first performed at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto in 1976 and received international recognition. He directed the San Carlo Theatre from 1981 to 1987, and was stage director of operas at La Scala in Milan from 1986. He was director of the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella from 1995 to 2000. Life and career Born in Naples on 25 August 1933, De Simone graduated in piano and composition from the San Pietro a Maiella Conservatory. He started an intense concert activity, performing as an harpsichordist in the Domenico Scarlatti Orchestra. At the same time he started being active as an ethnomusical research ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of Naples, province-level municipality is the third most populous Metropolitan cities of Italy, metropolitan city in Italy with a population of 2,958,410 residents, and the List of urban areas in the European Union, eighth most populous in the European Union. Naples metropolitan area, Its metropolitan area stretches beyond the boundaries of the city wall for approximately . Naples also plays a key role in international diplomacy, since it is home to NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Naples and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean. Founded by Greeks in the 1st millennium BC, first millennium BC, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited urban areas in the world. In the eighth century BC, a colony known as Parthenope () was e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tarantism
'' Lycosa tarantula'' carrying her offspring Tarantism ( ) is a form of hysteric behaviour originating in Southern Italy, popularly believed to result from the bite of the wolf spider '' Lycosa tarantula'' (distinct from the broad class of spiders also called tarantulas). A better candidate cause is '' Latrodectus tredecimguttatus'', commonly known as the Mediterranean black widow or steppe spider, although no link between such bites and the behaviour of tarantism has ever been demonstrated. However, the term historically is used to refer to a dancing mania – characteristic of Southern Italy – which likely had little to do with spider bites. The tarantella dance supposedly evolved from a therapy for tarantism. History It was originally described in the 11th century. The condition was common in Southern Italy, especially in the province of Taranto, during the 16th and 17th centuries. There were strong suggestions that there is no organic cause for the heightened excitab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernadette Manca Di Nissa
Bernadette Manca di Nissa (born 27 September 1954) is an Italian operatic contralto who has sung leading roles in the principal opera houses of Italy as well as internationally. She has appeared at La Scala in Milan, La Fenice in Venice, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence as well as at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Festival of Salzburg, Matsumoto Festival, NHK in Tokyo, Sao Carlos Theater in Lisboa etc. Born in Cagliari and a descendant of a noble family, she studied singing privately and later at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. Initially specializing in Baroque music and Rossini's works (''Tancredi'', ''Semiramide'', ''L'Italiana in Algeri'', ''La gazza ladra''), she developed a wide-ranging repertoire that includes works by Monteverdi, Handel, Jommelli, Mozart, Gluck ('' Orfeo ed Euridice''), Salieri, Donizetti, Verdi (''Falstaff''), Puccini, Stravinsky and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orfeo Ed Euridice
(; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the '' azione teatrale'', meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing. The piece was first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 5 October 1762, in the presence of Empress Maria Theresa. ''Orfeo ed Euridice'' is the first of Gluck's "reform" operas, in which he attempted to replace the abstruse plots and overly complex music of ''opera seria'' with a "noble simplicity" in both the music and the drama. The opera is the most popular of Gluck's works, and was one of the most influential on subsequent German operas. Variations on its plot—the underground rescue mission in which the hero must control, or conceal, his emotions—can be found in Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'', Beethoven's ''Fidelio'', and Wagner's ''Das Rheingold''. Though originally s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghena Dimitrova
Ghena Dimitrova (, 6 May 1941 – 11 June 2005) was a Bulgarian operatic soprano. Her voice was known for its power and upper extension, which she used to great effect in operatic roles such as Turandot in a career spanning four decades. Early career Ghena Dimitrova was born in the Bulgarian village of Beglezh, some 25 km from Pleven, in 1941. She started singing in the school choir and her powerful voice led to her being offered a place at the Sofia Conservatory studying under Christo Brambarov between 1959 and 1964. While she was initially classified as a mezzo-soprano, she was recognised as a soprano in her second year. After finishing her studies at the Bulgarian State Conservatory, she started teaching singing. Her breakthrough came in 1967 as Abigaille in a Bulgarian National Opera production of Giuseppe Verdi's ''Nabucco'' after a couple of other sopranos dropped out. In the early recordings Dimitrova's voice had not yet reached its signature size, and in many ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renato Bruson
Renato Bruson (born 13 January 1936) is an Italian operatic baritone. Bruson is widely considered one of the most important Verdi baritones of the late 20th and early 21st century. Life and career Bruson was born in Granze near Padua on 13 January 1936. His passion for music matured in the parish choir when he was a child. He began his music studies at the conservatory of Padua where he was awarded a scholarship that allowed him to attend the courses in the face of economic problems. He did not receive much support from his family, who considered him a good-for-nothing. In his own words: "They thought that I only wanted to study music because I had no desire to work. At that time, the general feeling where I lived was that if someone worked, they had a future, whereas those who studied, especially if they studied music, were considered failures who would never find their path in life." However, he could continue his studies with the help of the administration of the conservatory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nabucco
''Nabucco'' (; short for ''Nabucodonosor'' , i.e. "Nebuchadnezzar II, Nebuchadnezzar") is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto is based on the biblical books of Books of Kings, 2 Kings, Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah, Book of Lamentations, Lamentations, and Book of Daniel, Daniel, and on the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu. However, Antonio Cortese's ballet adaptation of the play (with its necessary simplifications), given at La Scala in 1836, was a more important source for Solera than the play itself. Under its original name of ''Nabucodonosor'', the opera was first performed at La Scala in Milan on 9 March 1842. ''Nabucco'' is the opera that is considered to have permanently established Verdi's reputation as a composer. He commented that "this is the opera with which my artistic career really begins. And though I had many difficulties to fight against, it is cert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti (; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He is current music director of the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Muti has previously held posts at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He was named Music Director Emeritus in Chicago in 2023. A prolific recording artist, Muti has received numerous honours and awards, including two Grammy Awards. He is especially associated with the music of Giuseppe Verdi. Among the world's leading conductors, in a 2015 '' Bachtrack'' poll he was ranked by music critics as the world's fifth best living conductor. Childhood and education Muti was born in Naples but he spent his early childhood in Molfetta, near Bari, in the long region of Apulia on Italy's southern Adriatic coast. His father, Domenico, was a pathologist in Molfetta, as well as an amateur singe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Il Mattino
''Il Mattino'' (English: "The Morning") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Naples, Italy. History and profile ''Il Mattino'' was first published on 16 March 1892 by the journalists Edoardo Scarfoglio and Matilde Serao. Since 1999, the paper is owned and published by Caltagirone Editore following the purchase of the newspapers ''Il Messaggero'' and ''Il Mattino''. Since 14 September 2018, its headquarters have been located at the Torre Francesco in the city's business center. ''Il Mattino'' had a daily print circulation of 87,777 copies in 2004. Based on the 2008 survey data from Accertamenti Diffusione Stampa, it was the most-read daily newspaper in Campania, and according to Audipress, it was one of the most-read papers in southern Italy with 975,000 readers in 2011. In 2008, the paper had a circulation of 79,573 copies. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raffaele Viviani
Raffaele Viviani (10 January 1888 – 22 March 1950) was an Italian author, playwright, actor and musician. Viviani belongs to the turn-of-the-century school of realism in Italian literature, and his works touch on seamier elements of the lives of the poor in Naples of that period, such as petty crime and prostitution. Critics have termed Viviani "an autodidact realist", meaning that he acquired his skills through personal experience and not academic education. Viviani appeared at age 4 on the stage, and by age 20 he had acquired a solid nationwide reputation as an actor and playwright. He also played in Budapest, Paris, Tripoli, and throughout South America during his career. His plays are in the "anti- Pirandello" style, less concerned with the psychology of people than with the lives they lead. Viviani's best known-work is ''L'ultimo scugnizzo'' (The Last Urchin) (1931), ''scugnizzo'' being the underclass Neapolitan street child. Viviani composed songs and incidental mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist and a political figure. He is known for directing The Gospel According to St. Matthew (film), ''The Gospel According to St. Matthew'', the films from Trilogy of Life (''The Decameron (film), The Decameron'', ''The Canterbury Tales (film), The Canterbury Tales'' and ''Arabian Nights (1974 film), Arabian Nights'') and ''Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom''. A controversial personality due to his straightforward style, Pasolini's legacy remains contentious. Openly Homosexuality, gay while also a vocal advocate for heritage language language revival, revival, cultural conservatism, and Christian values in his youth, Pasolini became an avowed Marxist shortly after the end of World War II. He began voicing extremely harsh criticism of Italian petty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stabat Mater (Pergolesi)
(P.77) is a musical setting of the sequence, composed by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi in 1736. Composed in the final weeks of Pergolesi's life, it is scored for soprano and alto soloists, violin I and II, viola and . The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino. Background Many pieces which were said to have been composed by Pergolesi have been misattributed; the is definitely by Pergolesi, as a manuscript in his handwriting has been preserved. The work was composed for a Neapolitan confraternity, the , which had also commissioned a Stabat Mater from Alessandro Scarlatti. Pergolesi composed it during his final illness from tuberculosis in a Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli, along with a ' setting, and finished it shortly before he died. Reception The is one of Pergolesi's most celebrated sacred works, achieving great popularity after the composer's death. Jean-Jacques Rousseau showed appreciation for the work, praising the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
