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The Ballad Of Baby Doe
''The Ballad of Baby Doe'' is an opera by the American composer Douglas Moore that uses an English-language libretto by John Latouche. It is Moore's most famous opera and one of the few American operas to be in the standard repertory. Especially famous are the title heroine's five arias: "Letter Aria," "Willow Song," "I Knew it Was Wrong", "Gold is a Fine Thing", and "Always Through the Changing." Horace Tabor's "Warm as the Autumn Light" is also frequently heard. Distinguished sopranos who have portrayed Baby Doe include Beverly Sills (Moore's favorite interpreter of the role), Ruth Welting, Karan Armstrong, Faith Esham, and Elizabeth Futral. The opera's premiere took place at the Central City Opera in Colorado in 1956. Hanya Holm and Edwin Levy directed the production, and sopranos Dolores Wilson and Leyna Gabriele alternated in the title role. The opera's New York premiere, directed by Vladimir Rosing, was presented at the New York City Opera in 1958. This revised version a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Moore
Douglas Stuart Moore (August 10, 1893 – July 25, 1969) was an American composer, songwriter, organist, pianist, conductor, educator, actor, and author. A composer who mainly wrote works with an American subject, his music is generally characterized by lyricism in a popular or conservative style which generally eschewed the more experimental progressive trends of musical modernism. Composer Virgil Thomson described Moore as a neoromantic composer who was influenced by American folk music. While several of his works enjoyed popularity during his lifetime, only his folk opera ''The Ballad of Baby Doe'' (1956) has remained well known into the 21st century. Moore first created music while a student at Yale University from 1911 through 1917; writing usually humorous songs in a popular style for school events in addition to creating music for school plays and musical revues. His work composing music for the Yale Dramatic Association, Elizabethan Club, and Yale Glee Club drew the att ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Cassel
Walter Cassel (May 15, 1910 – July 3, 2000) was an American operatic baritone and actor. He began his career singing on the radio during the mid-1930s and appeared in a couple of Hollywood musical films in the late 1930s. He made his first stage appearances in a handful of Broadway productions during the late 1930s and early 1940s. He began his opera career at the Metropolitan Opera in 1942, and went on to have a long and fruitful association with that house that lasted until his retirement from the stage in 1974. In addition to working with the Met, Cassel was also a regular performer with the New York City Opera between 1948 and 1954 and worked frequently as a freelance artist with important opera companies on the international stage as well as in the United States. Biography Born John Walter Cassel in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Cassel began his musical education studying the trumpet while at Thomas Jefferson High School. He began taking private voice lessons after joining his hig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chester Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He previously served as the 20th U.S. vice president, vice president under President James A. Garfield. Arthur succeeded the presidency upon Garfield's Assassination of James A. Garfield, death in September 1881—two months after being shot by an assassin. Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, grew up in upstate New York and practiced law in New York City. He served as quartermaster general of the New York Army National Guard, New York Militia during the American Civil War. Following the war, he devoted more time to New York Republican politics and quickly rose in Senator Roscoe Conkling's political organization. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him to the post of Collector of the Port of New York in 1871, and he was an important supporter of Conkling and the Stalwart (politics), Stalwart faction of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Treigle
Norman Treigle (né Adanelle Wilfred Treigle (March 6, 1927February 16, 1975) was an American operatic bass-baritone, who was acclaimed for his great abilities as a singing-actor, and specialized in roles that evoked villainy and terror. Biography Treigle ( ) was born in New Orleans, the fifth and final child of a poor carpenter and his wife. Following his 1946 marriage to the former Loraine Siegel, the bass-baritone began vocal studies with the contralto Elisabeth Wood. In 1947, he made his operatic debut with the New Orleans Opera Association, as the Duke of Verona in '' Roméo et Juliette''. Between 1949 and 1951, he attended Loyola University of the South's College of Music, while performing various roles with the local opera company. ( Loyola's archives now preserve Treigle's personal papers.) In 1953, Treigle made his New York City Opera debut, as Colline in ''La bohème''. Three years later, the bass-baritone scored his first significant success, as the tormented Reve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lawrence Davidson
Lawrence Davidson is a retired professor of history from West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He is the author of ''Islamic Fundamentalism'', ''Cultural Genocide'' and has focused his academic research on American foreign relations with the Middle East. Early life and education Davidson was born to a secular Jewish household in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1945. He attended Rutgers University from 1963 to 1967, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history. While attending Rutgers, Davidson developed a leftist perspective regarding the problems facing the US in the 1960s. In 1967, Davidson was accepted into Georgetown University Master's program where he studied modern European intellectual history under Palestinian expatriate professor Hisham Sharabi. During his time at Georgetown (1969–1970), Davidson became one of the founding members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Georgetown at the height of the Vietnam War. In 1970, with the breaku ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the title role in ''Der fliegende Holländer'', Wotan/Der Wanderer in the ''Ring Cycle'' and Hans Sachs in '' Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg''. Wagner labelled these roles as ''Hoher Bass'' ("high bass")—see fach for more details. The bass-baritone voice is distinguished by two attributes. First, it must be capable of singing comfortably in a baritonal tessitura. Secondly, however, it needs to have the ripely resonant lower range typically associated with the bass voice. For example, the role of Wotan in ''Die Walküre'' covers the range from F2 (the F at the bottom of the bass clef) to F4 (the F above middle C), but only infrequently descends beyond C3 (the C below middle C). Bass-baritones are typically divide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running three times as the party's nominee for President of the United States in the 1896 United States presidential election, 1896, 1900 United States presidential election, 1900, and the 1908 United States presidential election, 1908 elections. He served in the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives from 1891 to 1895 and as the United States Secretary of State, Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson. Because of his faith in the wisdom of the common people, Bryan was often called "The Great Commoner", and because of his rhetorical power and early notoriety, "The Boy Orator". Born and raised in Illinois, Bryan moved to Nebraska in the 1880s. He won election to the House of Representatives in the 1890 United States House ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patricia Kavan
Patricia is a female given name of Latin origin. Derived from the Latin word ''patrician'', meaning "noble"; it is the feminine form of the masculine given name Patrick. The name Patricia was the second most common female name in the United States according to the 1990 US Census. Another well-known variant of this is "Patrice". According to the US Social Security Administration records, the use of the name for newborns peaked at #3 from 1937 to 1943 in the United States, after which it dropped in popularity, sliding to #745 in 2016.Popularity of a NameSocial Security Administration''ssa.gov'', accessed June 26, 2017 From 1928 to 1967, the name was ranked among the top 11 female names. In Portuguese and Spanish-speaking Latin-American countries, the name Patrícia/Patricia is common as well, pronounced . In Catalan and Portuguese it is written Patrícia, while in Italy, Germany and Austria Patrizia is the form, pronounced . In Polish, the variant is Patrycja. It is also used in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beatrice Krebs
Beatrice Krebs (March 12, 1924 – February 5, 2011) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano. Life and career Born in Cleveland, Krebs made her professional opera debut in 1952 at the New York City Opera (NYCO) as Miss Todd in Gian Carlo Menotti's ''The Old Maid and the Thief''. In 1956 she portrayed Mama McCourt in the world premiere of Douglas Moore's ''The Ballad of Baby Doe'' at the Central City Opera. She repeated that role for the opera's NYCO premiere in 1958 and on the 1959 NYCO recording of the opera. She can also be heard on the 1959 recording of Igor Stravinsky's '' Threni'' with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. From 1961 to 1963 she performed the role of the Mother Abbess in the first national tour of ''The Sound of Music'' with Florence Henderson as Maria. After the tour ended, she joined the voice faculty at Carnegie Mellon University in 1963. She was later promoted to the position of head of the voice faculty at that institution. She died in Golden Valley, Minnesota ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contralto
A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typically between the F below middle C (F3 in scientific pitch notation) to the second F above middle C (F5), although, at the extremes, some voices can reach the D below middle C (D3) or the second B above middle C (B5). The contralto voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic contralto. History "Contralto" is primarily meaningful only in reference to classical and operatic singing, as other traditions lack a comparable system of vocal categorization. The term "contralto" is only applied to female singers; men singing in a similar range are called "countertenors". The Italian terms "contralto" and "alto" are not synonymous, "alto" technically denoting a specific vocal range in choral singing without regard to factors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frances Bible
Frances Lillian Bible (January 26, 1919 – January 29, 2001) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had a thirty-year career at the New York City Opera between 1948 and 1978. She also made a number of opera appearances with other companies throughout the United States, but only made a limited number of appearances abroad. Martin Bernheimer wrote in ''Opera News'' that, "Frances Bible was cheated by destiny. She never quite achieved the international recognition she deserved. Bible had it all—a mellow, wide-ranging mezzo-soprano, an attractive stage presence, genuine theatrical flair, a probing mind and a technique that allowed her to sing bel canto, bel-canto coloratura, filigree one night, Verdian drama the next. She was one of the rare American singers who savor the English language. She understood the value of economy, never stooping to easy effects. Perhaps she was too versatile, too tasteful and — dare one say it? — too intelligent for her own good." Biography Bibl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martha Lipton
Martha Lipton (April 6, 1913 – November 28, 2006) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano. Biography Lipton was born in New York City. She won a scholarship to the Juilliard School and made her debut as Pauline in Tchaikovsky's opera '' The Queen of Spades'' for the New Opera Company in Manhattan in 1941. After making her first appearance with the New York City Opera in 1944 (their first season, and returned in 1958 and 1961), she went on to appear 401 times at the Metropolitan Opera. Her most frequent assignments at the Met were as Annina in ''Der Rosenkavalier'' and Emilia in ''Otello''. She also performed as Mrs. Sedley in ''Peter Grimes'' in 1948, Mother Goose in ''The Rake's Progress'', in 1953, and Madame Larina in the 1957 Peter Brook staging of ''Eugene Onegin''. Her final appearance at the Met was as the Innkeeper in ''Boris Godunov'' in 1961. Lipton also sang in Europe. She sang the title role in Benjamin Britten's ''The Rape of Lucretia'' for the English Opera Group i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
