1.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
2.
Benjamin Britten
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Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten OM CH was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He was a figure of 20th-century British classical music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral. His best-known works include the opera Peter Grimes, the War Requiem, Born in Suffolk, the son of a dentist, Britten showed talent from an early age. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London and privately with the composer Frank Bridge, Britten first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy was Born in 1934. With the premiere of Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to international fame, over the next 28 years, he wrote 14 more operas, establishing himself as one of the leading 20th-century composers in the genre. In addition to large-scale operas for Sadlers Wells and Covent Garden, he wrote operas for small forces. Among the best known of these is The Turn of the Screw, recurring themes in his operas include the struggle of an outsider against a hostile society and the corruption of innocence. Brittens other works range from orchestral to choral, solo vocal, chamber and he took a great interest in writing music for children and amateur performers, including the opera Noyes Fludde, a Missa Brevis, and the song collection Friday Afternoons. He often composed with particular performers in mind, Britten was a celebrated pianist and conductor, performing many of his own works in concert and on record. He also performed and recorded works by others, such as Bachs Brandenburg concertos, Mozart symphonies, in his last year, he was the first composer to be given a life peerage. Britten was born in the port of Lowestoft in Suffolk, on the east coast of England on 22 November 1913. He was the youngest of four children of Robert Victor Britten and his wife Edith Rhoda, Robert Brittens youthful ambition to become a farmer had been thwarted by lack of capital, and he had instead trained as a dentist, a profession he practised successfully but without pleasure. While studying at Charing Cross Hospital in London he met Edith Hockey and they were married in September 1901 at St Johns, Smith Square, London. The consensus among biographers of Britten is that his father was a loving but somewhat stern, Britten, according to his sister Beth, got on well with him and shared his wry sense of humour, dedication to work and capacity for taking pains. Edith Britten was an amateur musician and secretary of the Lowestoft Musical Society. In the English provinces of the early 20th century, distinctions of class were taken very seriously. Music was the means by which Edith Britten strove to maintain the familys social standing, inviting the pillars of the local community to musical soirées at the house. When Britten was three months old he contracted pneumonia and nearly died, the illness left him with a damaged heart, and doctors warned his parents that he would probably never be able to lead a normal life
3.
Peter Pears
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Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE was an English tenor. His career was associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years. In the concert hall, Pears and Britten were celebrated recitalists, known in particular for their performances of Lieder by Schubert, together they recorded most of the works written for Pears by Britten, as well as a wide range of music by other composers. Working with other musicians, Pears sang a repertoire of music from four centuries. With Britten, Pears was a co-founder of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1947, after Britten died in 1976, Pears remained an active participant in the festival and the school, where he was director of singing. His own voice had a distinctive timbre, not to all tastes, Pears was born in Farnham, Surrey, the youngest of the seven children of Arthur Grant Pears and his wife, Jessie Elizabeth de Visme, née Luard. Arthur Pears was a engineer and successful businessman, who spent much of his time working overseas. Mitchell comments that Pearss lifelong pacifism stemmed from the Quaker side of the family, and adds, There was indeed something of the patrician Quaker in his looks, manners and his habitual charm and courtesy rarely deserted him. Although his father, and sometimes his mother, were absent abroad for long periods and he enjoyed his schooldays at his prep school, The Grange, and his public school, Lancing College, which he attended from 1923 to 1928. He showed considerable talent for music, both as a pianist and as a singer, playing leading roles in productions of Gilbert. He was a capable and enthusiastic cricketer, and remembered all his life the pride he felt in scoring 81 not out in a match against Surrey at the Oval. In 1928 Pears went to Keble College, Oxford, to study music, in the event Pears did not take to Oxfords academic regime, which required him to study a range of subjects before specialising in music. He failed the examinations and though he was entitled to resit them he decided against doing so. With no clear idea of his future, Pears took a teaching post at his old school in 1929. Among his dearest friends were the twins Peter and Nell Burra, Peter was a friend from Lancing days. She urged him not to drift into a lifetime of schoolmastering and he later said that it was hearing the tenor Steuart Wilson singing the Evangelist in J S Bachs St Matthew Passion that started me off. He successfully applied for admission to the Royal College of Music in London, first as a student and then, having been awarded a scholarship. But, as at Oxford, he failed to complete the course and he chafed at subsisting on a students limited funds, and wanted a good, steady income
4.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
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A Midsummer Nights Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six actors who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeares most popular works for the stage and is performed across the world. The play opens with Hermia, who is in love with Lysander, resistant to her father Egeus demand that she wed Demetrius, Helena meanwhile pines unrequitedly for Demetrius. Enraged, Egeus invokes an ancient Athenian law before Duke Theseus, whereby a daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, Theseus offers her another choice, lifelong chastity while worshipping the goddess Artemis as a nun. Quince reads the names of characters and bestows them to the players, nick Bottom, who is playing the main role of Pyramus, is over-enthusiastic and wants to dominate others by suggesting himself for the characters of Thisbe, the Lion, and Pyramus at the same time. He would also rather be a tyrant and recites some lines of Ercles, Bottom is told by Quince that he would do the Lion so terribly as to frighten the duchess and ladies enough for the Duke and Lords to have the players hanged. Quince ends the meeting with at the Dukes oak we meet, in a parallel plot line, Oberon, king of the fairies, and Titania, his queen, have come to the forest outside Athens. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until she has attended Theseus, Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his knight or henchman, since the childs mother was one of Titanias worshippers. Oberon seeks to punish Titanias disobedience, when the concoction is applied to the eyelids of a sleeping person, that person, upon waking, falls in love with the first living thing they perceive. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower with the hope that he might make Titania fall in love with an animal of the forest and thereby shame her into giving up the little Indian boy. He says, And ere I take this charm from off her sight, /As I can take it with another herb, Hermia and Lysander have escaped to the same forest in hopes of eloping. Helena, desperate to reclaim Demetriuss love, tells Demetrius about the plan, Helena continually makes advances towards Demetrius, promising to love him more than Hermia. However, he rebuffs her with cruel insults against her, observing this, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the magical juice from the flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, not having seen either before. Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to determine whether he is dead or asleep, upon this happening, Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena. Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia and is enraged, when Demetrius goes to sleep, Oberon sends Puck to get Helena while he charms Demetrius eyes
5.
Aldeburgh Festival
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The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, the Festival was founded in 1948 by the composer Benjamin Britten, the singer Peter Pears and the librettist/producer Eric Crozier. A modest Festival with a few concerts given by friends, why not have an Aldeburgh Festival. The English Opera Group would provide a programme of opera productions. It featured a performance of Albert Herring by the English Opera Group, Brittens newly written Saint Nicolas, and performances by Clifford Curzon, over the years the festival grew and took in additional venues in nearby Orford, Blythburgh and Framlingham. Britten, who had lived in Snape in the 1930s, had the vision that the largest of the malthouses could be converted into a Concert Hall, most of the buildings original character, such as the distinctive square malthouse roof-vents, was retained. The new concert hall was opened by the Queen on 2 June 1967, two years later, on the first night of the 1969 Festival, the concert hall was destroyed by fire. Only the shell of the walls remained. For that year the Festival was moved to local venues. By the following year the hall had been rebuilt and once again it was opened in the presence of the Queen, the new Concert Hall at Snape Maltings became the main focus for the Aldeburgh Festival, although performances continued to be held at all the former venues. Thomas Adès was succeeded as Artistic Director of the Festival by Pierre-Laurent Aimard in 2009, by 1982, Britten–Pears archivist Rosamund Strode calculated that the Festival had to that date presented new works by over 75 composers, with world premieres of 15 operas. Later, young composers continued to be encouraged with the foundation of the biennial Benjamin Britten Composers Competition, many new works were presented under the baton of Oliver Knussen, himself a notable contributor to the new works presented at the Festival. Later, Copland, Dutilleux, Lutoslawski and Kodály were to come to the Festival, richter played for Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Peter Pears, in addition to his role as joint Artistic Director, was a performer, often accompanied by Britten. The Concert Hall proved very capable of being turned into an opera stage, in 1979, Rostropovich conducted the Britten–Pears School in a performance of Eugene Onegin. In subsequent years, the School regularly performed an opera during the Festival, the organisation responsible for running the Aldeburgh Festival changed its name to Aldeburgh Music in 2006. Thomas Adès was succeeded as Artistic Director of the Festival by Pierre-Laurent Aimard in 2009, aldeburghs artist development programmes feed heavily into the June festival and other events throughout the year. The Aldeburgh Festival retains a unique character, largely due to its location in rural Suffolk and it also continues to emphasise the presentation of new music, new interpretations and the rediscovery of forgotten music
6.
Libretto
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A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata. Libretto, from Italian, is the diminutive of the word libro, sometimes other language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, livret for French works and Textbuch for German. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. The relationship of the librettist to the composer in the creation of a work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources. In the context of a modern English language musical theatre piece, Libretti for operas, oratorios and cantatas in the 17th and 18th centuries generally were written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Metastasio was one of the most highly regarded librettists in Europe and his libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th-century librettist was Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote the libretti for three of Mozarts greatest operas, as well as for other composers. Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer, Auber, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. The French writers duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote a number of opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach, Jules Massenet. Arrigo Boito, who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli, the libretto is not always written before the music. Some composers wrote their own libretti, Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Hector Berlioz, too, wrote the libretti for two of his works, La Damnation de Faust and Les Troyens. Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchners play Woyzeck for the libretto of Wozzeck, sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer, this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Belsky, or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics, thus, a musical such as Fiddler on the Roof has a composer, a lyricist and the writer of the book. In rare cases, the composer writes everything except the dance arrangements - music, lyrics and libretto, Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. A famous case of the latter is Wagners 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris, since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. The libretto of a musical, on the hand, is almost always written in prose
7.
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
8.
Word painting
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Word painting is the musical technique of writing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song. For example, ascending scales would accompany lyrics about going up, slow, tone painting of words goes at least as far back as Gregorian chant. Little musical patterns are musical words that not only emotive ideas such as joy. For instance, the pattern FA-MI-SOL-LA signifies the humiliation and death of Christ, fA-MI signifies deprecation, while SOL is the note of the resurrection, and LA is above the resurrection, His heavenly glory. Word painting developed especially in the late 16th century among Italian and English composers of madrigals, while it originated in secular music, it made its way into other vocal music of the period. While this mannerism is a prominent feature of madrigals of the late 16th century, thomas Campion, writing in the preface to his first book of lute songs 1601, said of it. Where the nature of word is precisely expresst in the Note … such childish observing of words is altogether ridiculous. Word painting flourished well into the Baroque music period, in Handels melody, the word valley ends on a low note, exalted is a rising figure, mountain forms a peak in the melody, and hill a smaller one, while low is another low note. This can be seen in the example, A modern example of word painting from the late 20th century occurs in the song Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks. During the chorus, Brooks sings the low on a low note. Similarly, on The Whos album Tommy, the song Smash the Mirror contains the line Can you hear me, or do I surmise That you feel me. Can you feel my temper Rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, each repetition of rise is a half-step higher than the last, making this an especially overt example of word-painting. Justin Timberlakes song What goes around is another example of text painting. The lyrics What goes around, goes around, goes around Comes all the way back around descend an octave and then return to the upper octave, in the chorus of Up Where We Belong, the melody rises during the words Love lift us up where we belong. In Johnny Cashs Ring of Fire, there is an inverse word painting where down, down, down is sung to the notes rising, the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, Part 1, Disc 6, Robert Greenberg, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
9.
Alfred Deller
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Alfred George Deller, CBE, was an English singer and one of the main figures in popularising the return of the countertenor voice in Renaissance and Baroque music during the 20th century. He is sometimes referred to as the godfather of the countertenor and his style in singing lute song, with extensive use of rubato and extemporised ornamentation, was seen as radical and controversial in his day but is now considered the norm. He also founded the Stour Music Festival in 1962, one of the first and most important early music festivals in the world, Deller was born in Margate, a seaside resort in Kent. As a boy, he sang in his church choir. When his voice broke, he continued singing in his high register, Deller was successively a member of the choirs of Canterbury and St. Pauls Cathedrals. Tippett introduced him to the public as a countertenor, rather than a male alto and he also became better known with a radio broadcast of Henry Purcells Come ye Sons of Art on the BBCs Third Programme when this station was launched in 1946. He concentrated on popularising and recording the music of English Baroque and Renaissance music by such as John Dowland. Throughout the 19th century, it was only in the tradition of all-male cathedral choirs that the voice had survived. In 1948, Deller formed the Deller Consort, a dedicated to historically informed performance. Membership of the Deller Consort changed over the years and it included various baritones and tenors, as well as sopranos April Cantelo Honor Sheppard and Mary Thomas. From 1964, Alfred Dellers son Mark was also a member, in 1972, the Deller Consort performed for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston. As well as directing the Consort, Deller also conducted performances with chamber orchestras. In 1960, Deller sang the role of Oberon in Benjamin Brittens opera A Midsummer Nights Dream, britten wrote this role with Deller specifically in mind, although he was dropped from staged revivals of the work against the composers wishes, probably because of poor acting technique. He did record the opera, with the composer conducting, lutenist Desmond Dupré performed with him, initially as a guitarist, other accompanists included harpsichordist and musicologist Walter Bergmann. In later years, he worked with lutenist Robert Spencer and harpsichordists Harold Lester and he recorded for HMV, Vanguard Classics, and Harmonia Mundi. On 16 July 1979, Deller died whilst on holiday in Bologna, Deller and his wife are buried in the churchyard of All Saints Church, Boughton Aluph, Kent. Dellers wife was Peggy, with whom he had three children and he taught at Guildford Cathedral choir school, eventually becoming its headmaster. Deller was a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, in Canterbury Cathedral, a tablet in the south quire aisle commemorates Deller and his work
10.
Aldeburgh
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Aldeburgh /ˈɔːlbrə/ is a coastal town in the English county of Suffolk. It remains an artistic and literary centre with an annual Poetry Festival and several festivals as well as other cultural events. It is a former Tudor port and was granted Borough status in 1529 by Henry VIII and its historic buildings include a 16th-century moot hall and a Napoleonic-era Martello Tower. Second homes make up roughly a third of the residential property. The town is a tourist destination with visitors attracted by its Blue Flag shingle beach and fisherman huts, where fish are sold daily. Two family-run fish and chip shops are cited as among the best in the UK, Alde Burgh means old fort although this structure, along with much of the Tudor town, has now been lost to the sea. In the 16th century, Aldeburgh was a port, and had a flourishing ship-building industry. Sir Francis Drakes Greyhound and Pelican were both built in Aldeburgh, the flagship of the Virginia Company, the Sea Venture is believed to have been built here in 1608. Aldeburghs importance as a port declined as the River Alde silted up and it survived mainly as a fishing village until the 19th century, when it also became a seaside resort. Much of its distinctive and whimsical architecture derives from that period, the river is now home to a yacht club and a sailing club. Aldeburgh is on the North Sea coast and is located around 87 miles north-east of London,20 mi north-east of Ipswich and 23 mi south of Lowestoft, locally it is 4 mi south of the town of Leiston and 2 mi south of the village of Thorpeness. It lies just to the north of the River Alde with the shingle spit of Orford Ness all that stops the river meeting the sea at Aldeburgh - instead it flows another 9 mi to the south-west. The beach is mainly shingle and wide in places with fishing boats able to be drawn up onto the beach above the high tide, but narrows at the neck of Orford Ness. The shingle bank allows access to the Ness from the north, passing a Martello tower, Aldeburgh was flooded during the North Sea flood of 1953 and flood defences around the town were strengthened as a result. The beach was awarded the Blue flag rural beach award in 2005, the town is within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and has a number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest and nature reserves in the local area. The Alde-Ore Estuary SSSI covers the surrounding the river from Snape to its mouth. This contains a number of salt marsh and mudflat habitats, the Leiston-Aldeburgh SSSI extends from the northern edge of the town to cover a range of habitats including grazing marsh and heathland. It includes Thorpeness Mere and the North Warren RSPB reserve an area of wildlife and habitat conservation, two smaller geological SSSI units are found on the southern edges of the town
11.
John Cranko
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John Cyril Cranko was a South African born ballet dancer and choreographer with the Royal Ballet) and the Stuttgart Ballet. Cranko was born in Rustenburg in the province of Transvaal. As a child, he would put on shows as a creative outlet. Cranko received his early training in Cape Town under the leading South African ballet teacher and director, Dulcie Howes. In 1945 he choreographed his first work for the Cape Town Ballet Club and he then moved to London, studying with the Sadlers Wells Ballet School in 1946 and dancing his first role with the Sadlers Wells Ballet in November 1947. Cranko collaborated with the designer John Piper on Sea Change, performed at the Gaiety Theatre and they collaborated again for Sadlers Wells Ballet on The Shadow, which opened on 3 March 1953. This period marked a transition in Crankos career from dancer to full-time choreographer, at 23 years old, he was appointed as resident choreographer for Sadlers Wells Theatre Ballets 1950–51 season. For the companys Festival of Britain season in 1951 Cranko choreographed the comic ballet Pineapple Poll, another collaboration with Mackerras followed in 1954 with The Lady and the Fool, to music by Verdi. In January 1954 Sadlers Wells Ballet announced that Cranko was collaborating with Benjamin Britten to create a ballet. Creating a list of dances, simply describing the action and giving a total timing for each, he passed this to Britten and left him to compose what eventually became The Prince of the Pagodas. Cranko wrote and developed a musical revue Cranks, which opened in London in December 1955, moved to a West End theatre the following March, and ran for 223 performances. With music by John Addison, its cast of four featured the singers Anthony Newley, Annie Ross, Hugh Bryant, an original cast CD has been released. In 1960, Cranko directed the first production of Benjamin Brittens opera A Midsummer Nights Dream, when the work had its London premiere the following year at Covent Garden, Cranko was not invited to direct, and Sir John Gielgud was brought in. Crankos work was a contribution to the international success of German ballet beginning with a guest performance at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1969. At Stuttgart, Cranko invited Kenneth MacMillan to work with the company, for whom MacMillan created four ballets in Crankos lifetime, at Crankos instigation the company established its own ballet school in 1971, it was renamed the John Cranko Schule in his honour in 1974. His assistant and choreologist Georgette Tsinguirides preserved his works in Benesh Movement Notation, the flight made an emergency landing in Dublin where Cranko was pronounced dead upon arrival at a hospital. His mother, Grace, who was divorced from Herbert and lived in what was then Rhodesia, Cranko was buried at a small cemetery near Castle Solitude in Stuttgart. In 2007 the Stuttgart Ballet celebrated what would have been Crankos 80th birthday with the Cranko Festival, the ballet Voluntaries by Glen Tetley was created in his memory
12.
Royal Opera House
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The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is referred to as simply Covent Garden. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented, a year later, Handels first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there. The current building is the theatre on the site following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1856. The façade, foyer, and auditorium date from 1858, the main auditorium seats 2,256 people, making it the third largest in London, and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The proscenium is 12.20 m wide and 14.80 m high, the main auditorium is a Grade I listed building. The letters patent remained in the possession of the patentees heirs until the 19th century, in 1728, John Rich, actor-manager of the Dukes Company at Lincolns Inn Fields Theatre, commissioned The Beggars Opera from John Gay. In addition, a Royal Charter had created a fruit and vegetable market in the area, at its opening on 7 December 1732, Rich was carried by his actors in processional triumph into the theatre for its opening production of William Congreves The Way of the World. Despite the frequent interchangeability between the Covent Garden and Drury Lane companies, competition was intense, often presenting the plays at the same time. Rich introduced pantomime to the repertoire, himself performing and a tradition of seasonal pantomime continued at the modern theatre, in 1734, Covent Garden presented its first ballet, Pygmalion. Marie Sallé discarded tradition and her corset and danced in diaphanous robes, george Frideric Handel was named musical director of the company, at Lincolns Inn Fields, in 1719, but his first season of opera, at Covent Garden, was not presented until 1734. His first opera was Il pastor fido followed by Ariodante, the première of Alcina, there was a royal performance of Messiah in 1743, which was a success and began a tradition of Lenten oratorio performances. From 1735 until his death in 1759 he gave regular seasons there and he bequeathed his organ to John Rich, and it was placed in a prominent position on the stage, but was among many valuable items lost in a fire that destroyed the theatre on 20 September 1808. In 1792 the architect Henry Holland rebuilt the auditorium, within the shell of the building but deeper and wider than the old auditorium. Rebuilding began in December 1808, and the second Theatre Royal, the Old Price Riots lasted over two months, and the management was finally forced to accede to the audiences demands. During this time, entertainments were varied, opera and ballet were presented, kemble engaged a variety of acts, including the child performer Master Betty, the great clown Joseph Grimaldi made his name at Covent Garden
13.
John Gielgud
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Sir Arthur John Gielgud OM CH was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trio of actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. A member of the Terry family theatrical dynasty, he gained his first paid acting work as a member of his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terrys company in 1922. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art he worked in repertory theatre, during the 1930s Gielgud was a stage star in the West End and on Broadway, appearing in new works and classics. He began a career as a director, and set up his own company at the Queens Theatre. He was regarded by many as the finest Hamlet of his era, in the 1950s Gielgud feared that his career was threatened when he was convicted and fined for a homosexual offence, but his colleagues and the public supported him loyally. From the late 1960s he found new plays that suited him, by authors including Alan Bennett, David Storey, during the first half of his career, Gielgud did not take the cinema seriously. Though he made his first film in 1924, and had successes with The Good Companions and Julius Caesar, Gielgud appeared in more than sixty films between Becket, for which he received his first Academy Award nomination, and Elizabeth. As the acid-tongued Hobson in Arthur he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and his film work further earned him a Golden Globe Award and two BAFTAs. Although largely indifferent to awards, Gielgud had the distinction of winning an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy. He was famous from the start of his career for his voice and he broadcast more than a hundred radio and television dramas, between 1929 and 1994, and made commercial recordings of many plays, including ten of Shakespeares. Among his honours, he was knighted in 1953 and the Gielgud Theatre was named after him, from 1977 to 1989, he was president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Gielgud was born in South Kensington, London, the third of the four children and youngest of three sons of Frank Henry Gielgud and his second wife, Kate Terry-Gielgud, née Terry-Lewis. The two elder boys were Lewis, who became an official of the Red Cross and UNESCO. On his fathers side, Gielgud was of Lithuanian and Polish descent, the surname derives from Gelgaudiškis, a village in Lithuania. The Counts Gielgud had owned the Gielgudziszki Castle on the River Niemen, jan Gielgud took refuge in England with his family, one of his grandchildren was Frank Gielgud, whose maternal grandmother was a famous Polish actress, Aniela Aszpergerowa. Frank married into a family with wide theatrical connections, Frank had no theatrical ambitions and worked all his life as a stockbroker in the City of London. In 1912, aged eight, Gielgud went to Hillside preparatory school in Surrey as his brothers had done
14.
Georg Solti
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Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and his career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis, and being of Jewish background he fled the increasingly restrictive anti-semitic laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist. After the war, Solti was appointed director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1946. In 1952 he moved to the Frankfurt Opera, where he remained in charge for nine years and he took West German citizenship in 1953. In 1961 he became director of the Covent Garden Opera Company. During his ten-year tenure, he introduced changes that raised standards to the highest international levels, under his musical directorship the status of the company was recognised with the grant of the title the Royal Opera. He became a British citizen in 1972, in 1969 Solti became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for 22 years. He relinquished the position in 1991 and became the music director laureate. Known in his early years for the intensity of his music making and he recorded many works two or three times at various stages of his career, and was a prolific recording artist, making more than 250 recordings, including 45 complete opera sets. The most famous of his recordings is probably Deccas complete set of Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen, Soltis Ring has twice been voted the greatest recording ever made, in polls for Gramophone magazine in 1999 and the BBCs Music Magazine in 2012. Solti was repeatedly honoured by the industry with awards throughout his career. Solti also received the Academy’s 1995 Lifetime Achievement Award, Solti was born György Stern on Maros utca, in the Hegyvidék district of the Buda side of Budapest. He was the younger of the two children of Móricz Stern and his wife Teréz, née Rosenbaum, both of whom were Jewish, in the aftermath of the First World War it became the accepted practice in Hungary for citizens with Germanic surnames to adopt Hungarian ones. The right wing regime of Admiral Horthy enacted a series of Hungarianisation laws, Mor Stern, a self-employed merchant, felt no need to change his surname, but thought it prudent to change that of his children. He renamed them after Solt, a town in central Hungary. His sons given name, György, was acceptably Hungarian and was not changed, Solti described his father as a kind, sweet man who trusted everyone. He shouldnt have, but he did, jews in Hungary were tremendously patriotic
15.
Snape Maltings
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Snape Maltings is an arts complex on the banks of the River Alde at Snape, Suffolk, UK. It is best known for its hall, which is one of the main sites of the annual Aldeburgh Festival. The original purpose of the Maltings was the malting of barley for the brewing of beer, local barley, once malted, was sent from here to London, today a collection of shops, galleries, restaurants and the Concert Hall fill the old buildings. The Alde Estuary is known for wildlife and river trips, Newson Garrett, a Victorian entrepreneur, built the Maltings in the 1800s, his name appears on plaques around the site. The river made Garrett decide to build a Maltings at this already busy port, Newson was ambitious and determined and in 1841 purchased the business of Osborne and Fennell, corn and coal merchants of Snape Bridge. From this port the Maltings began to evolve, using the River Alde to transport barley across Britain, within three years of his arrival, Newson Garrett was shipping 17,000 quarters of barley a year from Snape. Much of this barley would have been destined for breweries, where it had first to be malted, Snape was in the heart of good agricultural land, and halfway between the brewing area of Norwich and London. Demand from the London breweries was growing fast, and it was becoming impractical to make malt, in 1854 he began malting at Snape, and was soon shipping malt, rather than barley to the breweries. The Maltings process at Snape came to an end in the 1960s as Swonnell and Son went into liquidation, thirty acres of land was offered for sale, including dwellings and an inn. It was difficult to imagine how such functional structures could be put to different use, however George Gooderham, a local farmer and businessman, recognised the potential. He purchased the site and set about finding alternative uses for the buildings, by the 1960s the Aldeburgh Music Festival was outgrowing the limited space available in the Jubilee Hall. Benjamin Britten started to look around for somewhere to build a concert hall, Britten had the vision to see the largest Malthouse, in its magnificent setting overlooking the saltings as a possible site. Negotiations began with George Gooderham and after more than a year Snape Maltings Concert Hall was ready to be opened by the Queen at the start of the 1967 Aldeburgh Festival. Britten and Pears made a point of educating and supporting young artists, within five years Britten and Pears had reclaimed more buildings on the site to establish a centre for talented young musicians. In 2006 Aldeburgh Music purchased a 999-year lease of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall, investing around £14 million in new studios, the Creative Campus at Snape Maltings has four performance venues and over 20 rehearsal and public spaces. Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Concert Hall Gallery, Oyster Bar and Restaurant Built by Newson Garrett in the mid-19th century, the 832-seat Concert Hall began life as a malthouse. Officially opened in 1967 by HM Queen Elizabeth II, the Hall suffered serious fire damage two years later, re-opening in time for the Aldeburgh Festival the following year, the conversion of the building was undertaken by Arup Associates, with the acoustics supervised by Derek Sugden. Britten Studio, Jerwood Kiln Studio, rehearsal rooms, opened in May 2009, the Hoffmann Building features two spaces suitable for performances as well as a number of additional rehearsal rooms, office space and a social area
16.
English National Opera
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English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martins Lane. It is one of the two opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. ENOs productions are sung in English, Baylis subsequently built up both the opera and the theatre companies, and later added a ballet company, these evolved into ENO, the Royal National Theatre and The Royal Ballet, respectively. Baylis acquired and rebuilt the Sadlers Wells theatre in north London, the opera company grew there into a permanent ensemble in the 1930s. During the Second World War, the theatre was closed and the company toured British towns, after the war, the company returned to its home, but it continued to expand and improve. By the 1960s, a theatre was needed. In 1968, the moved to the London Coliseum and adopted its present name in 1974. Among the conductors associated with the company have been Colin Davis, Reginald Goodall, Charles Mackerras, Mark Elder, the current music director of ENO is Martyn Brabbins. Noted directors who have staged productions at ENO have included David Pountney, Jonathan Miller, Nicholas Hytner, Phyllida Lloyd, ENOs current artistic director is Daniel Kramer. In addition to the operatic repertoire, the company has presented a wide range of works, from early operas by Monteverdi to new commissions, operetta. In 1889, Emma Cons, a Victorian philanthropist who ran the Old Vic theatre in a area of London. Although the theatre licensing laws of the day prevented full costumed performances, Cons presented condensed versions of well-known operas, among the performers were noted singers such as Charles Santley. These operatic evenings quickly became more popular than the dramas that Cons had been staging separately, in 1898, she recruited her niece Lilian Baylis to help run the theatre. At the same time she appointed Charles Corri as the Old Vics musical director, Baylis and Corri, despite many disagreements, shared a passionate belief in popularising opera, hitherto generally the preserve of the rich and fashionable. They worked on a budget, with an amateur chorus. By the early years of the 20th century, the Old Vic was able to present semi-staged versions of Wagner operas, Emma Cons died in 1912, leaving her estate, including the Old Vic, to Baylis, who dreamed of transforming the theatre into a peoples opera house. In the same year, Baylis obtained a licence to allow the Old Vic to stage performances of operas. In the 1914–1915 season, Baylis staged 16 operas and 16 plays, the opera, however, remained her first priority
17.
Baz Luhrmann
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His 2008 film Australia is an epic historical romantic drama film starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. His 2013 drama The Great Gatsby, based on F. Scott Fitzgeralds 1925 novel of the name, stars Leonardo DiCaprio. His mother, Barbara Carmel, was a dance teacher and dress shop owner, and his father, Leonard Luhrmann, ran a petrol station. He was raised in Herons Creek, a rural settlement in northern New South Wales. Luhrmann received the nickname Baz from his father Leonard and he officially changed his given name from Mark to Baz sometime around 1979. In 1983, he commenced a course at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. He graduated in 1985 alongside Sonia Todd, Catherine McClements and Justin Monjo, on 26 January 1997, he married Catherine Martin, a production designer, the couple have two children. Luhrmann supports the Melbourne Demons in the Australian Football League, Australia The Great Gatsby The modern film interpretation Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, defeated Titanic at the BAFTAs for best direction, music and screenplay. The film was celebrated at the Berlin Film Festival, where it was recognised with the Gold Bear award for direction, Luhrmann also produced the soundtrack albums for the film. Was named one of the AFIs top ten films of 2001, the film also gave birth to a successful soundtrack album, selling more than seven million copies, led by the Grammy-winning number one hit single Lady Marmalade. Luhrmanns 2008 romantic epic Australia starred Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman and it is the second-highest grossing Australian film of all time, next to Crocodile Dundee and ahead of Happy Feet. In 2016, Luhrmann collaborated with award-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis on the Netflix series The Get Down about the birth of hip-hop in the 1970s. 1981, A young Luhrmann can be seen in an acting role in the film Winter of Our Dreams. Luhrmann has a part playing opposite Judy Davis. 1992, Luhrmann directed a video for John Paul Youngs Love Is in the Air,1993, Luhrmann staged his interpretation of Benjamin Brittens version of A Midsummer Nights Dream, set in colonial India, for the Australian Opera. After successful seasons in Sydney and Melbourne, the production went on to win the Critics Prize at the Edinburgh Festival, music extracts can be heard on his album Something for Everybody. 1993, Luhrmann assisted in the campaign of former Australian prime minister Paul Keating. 1997, The CD of Something for Everybody was released, featuring music from Luhrmanns films, moreover, Luhrmann created his own company with his wife Catherine Martin, Bazmark
18.
Music video
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A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing campaigns that allow them to more than just a song. Tie ins and merchandising could be used in toys or marketing campaigns for food, although the origins of music videos date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by terms including illustrated song, filmed insert, promotional film, promotional clip, promotional video, song video. Music videos use a range of styles of contemporary videomaking techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation, music, combining these styles and techniques has become more popular because of the variation it presents to the audience. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the songs lyrics, other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the songs live performance. Product placement is a technique in music videos, exemplified by the appearance of the Beats Pill in numerous hip hop videos. In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B, marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song The Little Lost Child. Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a form of entertainment known as the illustrated song. In 1926, with the arrival of many musical short films were produced. Vitaphone shorts featured many bands, vocalists and dancers, early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons. The early animated films by Walt Disney, such as the Silly Symphonies shorts and especially Fantasia, the Warner Brothers cartoons, even today billed as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Brothers musical films. Live action musical shorts, featuring such performers as Cab Calloway, were also distributed to theaters. Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a short film called St. Louis Blues featuring a dramatized performance of the hit song. Numerous other musicians appeared in short musical subjects during this period, soundies, produced and released from 1940 to 1947, were musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to later music videos
19.
Christine Anu
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Christine Anu is an Australian pop singer and actress. She gained popularity with the release of her song My Island Home, Anu has been nominated for 17 ARIA Awards. Anu was born on 15 March 1970 in Cairns, Queensland, Anu began performing as a dancer and later went on to sing back-up vocals for The Rainmakers, which included Neil Murray of the Warumpi Band. Her first recording was in 1993 with Last Train, a remake of a Paul Kelly song. The follow-up, Monkey and the Turtle, was based on a traditional story, after My Island Home, she released her first album, Stylin Up which went platinum. In 1995, Neil Murray won an Australasian Performing Right Association songwriting award for writing My Island Home, Christine Anu won an ARIA Award for best female recording artist as well as a Deadly Sounds National Aboriginal & Islander Music Awards Award in 1996 for best female artist. Baz Luhrmann asked her to sing on the song Now Until the Break of Day on his Something for Everybody album and it was released as a single and the video then won another ARIA award and led to her being cast in Moulin Rouge. In January 1998, Anu teamed up with Archie Roach, Paul Kelly, Judith Durham, Renee Geyer, Kutcha Edwards and Tiddas and formed Singers for the Red Black and Gold. Together, they released a cover of Yil Lull In,2000, Anu released Come My Way which peaked at number 18 on the ARIA albums chart, in 2000 she sang the song My Island Home at the Sydney 2000 Olympics Closing Ceremony. In November 2003, Anu released her studio album,45 Degrees. In 2007, Anu toured a childrens show and released an album titled Chrissys Island Family. The album gained an ARIA Award nomination, on 26 September 2010, she released a new digital only single, Come Home. On 7 November 2014, Anu released a Christmas album, titled Island Christmas, Anu has also had an acting plus TV career. She appeared in Dating the Enemy, a 1996 Australian film starring Guy Pearce and she then appeared in an Australian production of the stage musical Little Shop of Horrors in the same year. Anus stage career developed with a role in the original Australian production of Rent in 1998 and 1999. Anu was offered a role in a Broadway production of this musical but had to due to commitments in recording her second album. Her links with Baz Luhrmann led to him offering her a part in Moulin Rouge, in 2003, she appeared as Kali in The Matrix Reloaded and played the character on the video game Enter the Matrix. In 2004, she became a judge on Popstars Live, a television quest broadcast on the Seven Network at 6.30 pm on Sunday night in Australia along the lines of Australian Idol
20.
David Hobson (tenor)
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David Hobson is an Australian opera singer and composer. This led to his becoming a member of the companys Young Artists Programme, in 1988 he made his debut with The Australian Opera when he created the role of Lawrence in the world premiere of Brian Howards opera Whitsunday. It was filmed during its 1993 return season and broadcast on ABC TV several times, released on VHS in 1994, it was to become the first opera available on DVD and continues to be a best seller worldwide. Hobsons Gilbert and Sullivan roles with Opera Australia, include Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, Marco Palmieri in The Gondoliers, pinafore and the Defendant in Trial by Jury. The national tour continued in 2007, with seasons in Adelaide and Melbourne and his Mozart roles include Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Tamino in The Magic Flute and Belmonte in The Abduction from the Seraglio. His Rossini roles include Lindoro in Litaliana in Algeri, Ramiro in La Cenerentola, Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, Dorvil in La scala di seta and Florville in Il signor Bruschino. Many other roles have included Ernesto in Donizettis Don Pasquale, Nadir in Bizets The Pearl Fishers, and a highly acclaimed Orphée in Glucks Orphée et Eurydice. In 2008, he made his debut as Nemorino in Donizettis Lelisir damore with the Victorian Opera. In 2006, he sang the role in a Perth International Arts Festival concert performance of Candide by Leonard Bernstein. Just weeks later he had the honour of singing before Elizabeth II and many distinguished guests. Hobson and bass-baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes CD Youll Never Walk Alone was released in February 2009, one of the recitals was in Hobart, and a few weeks later Hobson returned for concerts with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in Hobart and Launceston. April saw Hobsons debut as a specialist presenter on the new pay-TV STVDIO arts channel, Hobson followed the Fledermaus season of traditional operetta with something completely different when he appeared at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in his stagework Am I Really Here. In June 2010 and a performance of Zenders contemporary interpretation of Schuberts Winterreise at the Brisbane Powerhouse in July, the CD album Singing for Love, a compilation of work by Hobson and Yvonne Kenny, was released in 2010 before their nationwide concert tour. There was another compilation CD, The Best of David Hobson, in 2012 and 2013, Hobson appeared as Caractacus Potts opposite Rachael Beck as Truly Scrumptious in an Australian touring production of the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Hobson made his debut for Opera Queensland in a staged performance of Bernsteins Candide in 2015. His 2008 album, A Little Closer, covers classic pop songs and his CD Enchanted Way, featuring mainly Celtic folksongs of the British Isles, was released in 2010. M. S. In late 2007 Hobson appeared in Dancing with the Stars Series 7, with he and his mentor, Karina Schembri, in 2008 he resumed his more familiar role of mentor to win It Takes Two Series 3, with Julia Morris. In 2000, Hobson became the Inaugural Patron of the Ballarat Arts Foundation, and continues in that capacity
21.
Voice type
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Other considerations are physical characteristics, speech level, scientific testing, and vocal register. A singers voice type is identified by a known as voice classification, by which the human voice is evaluated. The discipline of voice classification developed within European classical music and is not generally applicable to other forms of singing, voice classification is often used within opera to associate possible roles with potential voices. Voice classification is a tool for singers, composers, venues, while useful, voice classification systems have been used too rigidly, i. e. a house assigning a singer to a specific type and only casting him or her in roles they consider belonging to this category. A singer will choose a repertoire that suits his or her instrument, many different voice types are used in vocal pedagogy in a variety of voice classification systems. Most of these types, however, are grouped into seven major categories that are, for the most part. Women are typically divided into three groups, soprano, mezzo-soprano, and alto, men are usually divided into four groups, countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass. Some women fall into the tenor or baritone groups, while men identified as countertenors can be grouped as contralto, mezzo-soprano, when considering the pre-pubescent voice, an eighth term, treble, is applied. Within each of these categories, subcategories identify specific vocal qualities such as coloratura facility. The vocal range of classical performance covers about five octaves, from a low G1 to a high G6, any individuals voice can perform over a range of one and a half to more than two octaves. Vocal ranges are grouped into overlapping types that each span two octaves. Many singers fall between groups and can perform some parts in either type, soprano range, The soprano is the highest singing voice. The typical soprano voice lies between C4 and C6, the low extreme for sopranos is roughly A3. Most soprano roles do not extend above C6 although there are several standard soprano roles that call for D6, at the highest extreme, some coloratura soprano roles may reach to F6. Soprano tessitura, The tessitura of the soprano voice lies higher than all the other voices except the sopranino, in particular, the coloratura soprano has the highest tessitura of all the soprano subtypes. Soprano subtypes, As with all types, sopranos are often divided into different subcategories based on range, vocal color or timbre, the weight of voice. Sopranos are often broken down into five subcategories, coloratura soprano, soubrette, lyric soprano, spinto soprano, two types of soprano especially dear to the French are the Dugazon and the Falcon, which are intermediate voice types between the soprano and the mezzo soprano. A Dugazon is a darker-colored soubrette, a Falcon a darker-colored soprano drammatico
22.
Countertenor
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Countertenors often are baritones or tenors at core, but rarely use this vocal range in performance. The term first came into use in England during the mid-17th century, however, the use of adult male falsettos in polyphony, commonly in the alto range, was common in all-male sacred choirs for some decades previous, as early as the mid-16th century. Modern-day ensembles such as The Tallis Scholars and The Sixteen maintain the use of male altos in period works, during the Romantic period, the popularity of the countertenor voice waned and few compositions were written with that voice type in mind. Although the voice has been considered largely an early music phenomenon, in polyphonic compositions of the 14th and early 15th centuries, the contratenor was a voice part added to the basic two-part contrapuntal texture of discant and tenor. Though having approximately the range as the tenor, it was generally of a much less melodic nature than either of these other two parts. Later the term became obsolete, in Italy, contratenor altus became simply altus, in France, haute-contre, though originally these words were used to designate a vocal part, they are now used to describe singers of that part, whose vocal techniques may differ. In the Catholic Church during the Renaissance, St Pauls admonition mulieres in ecclesiis taceant still prevailed, countertenors, though rarely described as such, therefore found a prominent part in liturgical music, whether singing a line alone or with boy trebles or altos. However, countertenors were never used for roles in early opera, for example, they took several roles in the first performance of Monteverdis LOrfeo. Castrati were already prominent by this date in Italian church choirs, in Italian opera, by the late seventeenth century castrati predominated, while in France, the modal high tenor, called the haute-contre, was established as the voice of choice for leading male roles. In England Purcell wrote significant music for a male voice that he called a counter-tenor, for example. These lines have often challenged modern singers, who have been unsure whether they are high tenor parts or are meant for falsettists. Such is the case in Hail, bright Cecilia in which the solo, Tis Natures Voice, has the range F3 to B♭4, whereas, in the duet, Hark each tree, the countertenor soloist sings from E4 to D5. In parallel, by Handels time, castrati had come to dominate the English operatic stage as much as that of Italy and they also sang the alto parts in Handels choruses. It was as choral singers within the Anglican church tradition that survived as performers throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Otherwise they largely faded from public notice, the most visible person of the countertenor revival in the twentieth century was Alfred Deller, an English singer and champion of authentic early music performance. Deller initially identified as an alto, but his collaborator Michael Tippett recommended the term countertenor to describe his voice. In the 1950s and 60s, his group, the Deller Consort, was important in increasing awareness of Renaissance. Deller was the first modern countertenor to achieve fame, and has had many prominent successors, benjamin Britten wrote the leading role of Oberon in his setting of A Midsummer Nights Dream especially for Deller
23.
Tenor
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Tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is one of the highest of the male voice types. The tenors vocal range lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, and A4, the A above middle C, in solo work, this range extends up to C5, or tenor high C. The low extreme for tenors is roughly A♭2, at the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to two Fs above middle C. The tenor voice type is divided into the leggero tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor. The name tenor derives from the Latin word tenere, which means to hold, in medieval and Renaissance polyphony between about 1250 and 1500, the tenor was the structurally fundamental voice, vocal or instrumental. All other voices were normally calculated in relation to the tenor, until the late 16th century introduction of the contratenor singers, the tenor was usually the highest voice, assuming the role of providing a foundation. It was also in the 18th century that tenor came to signify the male voice that sang such parts, thus, for earlier repertoire, a line marked tenor indicated the parts role, and not the required voice type. Indeed, even as late as the century, partbooks labelled tenor might contain parts for a range of voice types. The vocal range of the tenor is one of the highest of the voice types. Within opera, the lowest note in the tenor repertoire is probably A♭2 in Rossinis rarely performed La donna del lago in the role of Rodrigo di Dhu. Within more frequently performed repertoire, Mime and Herod both call for an A2, a few tenor roles in the standard repertoire call for a tenor C. Some of the few top Cs in the operatic repertoire are either optional or interpolated by tradition. However, the highest demanded note in the standard operatic repertoire is D5. Some operatic roles for tenors require a darker timbre and fewer high notes, in the leggero repertoire, the highest note is F5, therefore, very few tenors can, given the raising of concert pitch since its composition, have this role in their repertoire without transposition. Within the tenor voice type category are seven generally recognized subcategories, leggero tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, Mozart tenor, Also known as the tenore di grazia, the leggero tenor is essentially the male equivalent of a lyric coloratura. This voice is light, agile, and capable of executing difficult passages of fioritura, the typical leggero tenor possesses a range spanning from approximately C3 to E♭5, with a few being able to sing up to F5 or higher in full voice. In some cases, the chest register of the leggero tenor may extend below C3, voices of this type are utilized frequently in the operas of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and in music dating from the Baroque period. Leggero tenor roles in operas, The lyric tenor is a warm voice with a bright, full timbre that is strong but not heavy
24.
George Maran
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George Alfred Maran was an American opera, oratorio, and concert tenor. Maran attended Harvard University where he and his came to the attention of people such as Leonard Bernstein. He first drew attention when he won the “Mozart-Medaille” from the Mozarteum International Foundation in Salzburg in 1956 on Mozart’s 200th birthday. The same year, and the forty years thereafter, he was a soloist at the Opera in Darmstadt. Even so, he continued singing all over Europe and the United States and he has sung many wide-ranging and varied genres as soloist in opera, operetta, oratorio, and on the concert stage. Maran was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, the younger of 2 children, Maran born Agop Marangossian was an Armenian from Smyrna who spoke 7 languages fluently, “I don’t know much about him, said Maran, he left when I was 7”. His mother, born Persis M. Weeman, gave piano and his great-grandfather, Orin Weeman, and grandfather, Walter O. Weeman were well-known violin makers from ”America’s oldest violin making family” at the time. It was the influence of his grandfather Weeman and his Mother that started him on his path. At age 20 Maran joined the Harvard Glee Club and he met Leonard Bernstein sometime between then and his graduation. “He heard me at one or more of my concerts and liked my voice Maran said, in the same way Maran met Paul Hindemith, also through attending his lectures. Maran graduated from Harvard University in 1948, on September 15,1950 Maran married Edit Engel she was studying medicine at Tufts College. She was a Jewish refugee who fled with her family in 1939 at the age of 15 to England and they had two children, Elizabeth Ann born June 1,1952 in Salzburg, and Joseph born in Frankfurt am Main on September 6,1957. Maran died, aged 85 in Darmstadt, on Nov 262011, from heart and his grave is planned to be located at the Waldfriedhof in Darmstadt. In late 1950 the Marans moved to Salzburg, they lived in the house of Herbert Feuerstein. Maran Studied church music under Domkapellmeister Joseph Messner, Mozart operas under Professor Dr. B, paumgartner, and sang in the Salzburg Cathedral as solo Tenor for 5 years. In 1954 Feuerstein wrote 3 Dehmel-Gedichte songs for him, the songs themselves were first publicly performed at Marans’ 80th birthday celebration at Staatstheater Darmstadt with Feuerstein himself playing the piano. Salzburger Festspiele Archiv In the 40 years that Mr. Maran was at Staatstheater Darmstadt, he sang so much, Maran started in Darmstadt with the premiere of Mozart’s “Titus” in the title part. Marans artistic collaboration with Harro Dicks was the force for the Monteverdi revival which had its beginning in Darmstadt
25.
Baritone
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A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice types. It is the most common male voice, the baritone voice type is generally divided into the baryton-Martin baritone, lyric baritone, Kavalierbariton, Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, baryton-noble baritone, and the bass-baritone. The first use of the term baritone emerged as baritonans, late in the 15th century, at this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices, but in 17th-century Italy the term was all-encompassing and used to describe the average male choral voice. Baritones took roughly the range as it is today at the beginning of the 18th century. Indeed, many works of the 18th century have roles marked as bass that in reality are low baritone roles. Examples of this are to be found, for instance, in the operas, the greatest and most enduring parts for baritones in 18th-century operatic music were composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They include Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Papageno in The Magic Flute and these included the likes of Filippo Galli, Giovanni Inchindi, and Henri-Bernard Dabadie. The basse-taille and the bass were commonly confused because their roles were sometimes sung by singers of either actual voice part. The bel canto style of vocalism which arose in Italy in the early 19th century supplanted the castrato-dominated opera seria of the previous century and it led to the baritone being viewed as a separate voice category from the bass. More often than not, however, baritones found themselves portraying villains, the principal composers of bel canto opera are considered to be, Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Giacomo Meyerbeer, and the young Giuseppe Verdi. Figaro in Il barbiere is often called the first true baritone role, however, Donizetti and Verdi in their vocal writing went on to emphasize the top fifth of the baritone voice, rather than its lower notes—thus generating a more brilliant sound. The major international baritone of the first half of the 19th century was the Italian Antonio Tamburini and he was a famous Don Giovanni in Mozarts eponymous opera as well as being a Bellini and Donizetti specialist. Commentators praised his voice for its beauty, flexibility and smooth tonal emission, Tamburinis range, however, was probably closer to that of a bass-baritone than to that of a modern Verdi baritone. His French equivalent was Henri-Bernard Dabadie, who was a mainstay of the Paris Opera between 1819 and 1836 and the creator of several major Rossinian baritone roles, including Guillaume Tell. Dabadie sang in Italy, too, where he originated the role of Belcore in Lelisir damore in 1832, the most important of Tamburinis Italianate successors were all Verdians. In France, Paul Barroilhet succeeded Dabadie as the Paris operas best known baritone, like Dabadie, he also sang in Italy and created an important Donizetti role, in his case, Alphonse in La favorite. Antonio Pini-Corsi was the standout Italian buffo baritone in the period between about 1880 and World War I, reveling in comic roles by Rossini, Donizetti and Paer. In 1893, he created the part of Ford in Verdis last opera, notable among their contemporaries were the cultured and technically adroit French baritones Jean Lassalle, Victor Maurel, Paul Lhérie, and Maurice Renaud
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Mezzo-soprano
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A mezzo-soprano or mezzo is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-sopranos vocal range extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above. In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C, the mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic mezzo-soprano. Mezzo-sopranos are well represented in music, early music. Some roles designated for lighter soubrette sopranos are sung by mezzo-sopranos, such roles include Despina in Mozarts Così fan tutte and Zerlina in his Don Giovanni. Mezzos sometimes play dramatic soprano roles such as Santuzza in Mascagnis Cavalleria rusticana, Lady Macbeth in Verdis Macbeth, the vocal range of the mezzo-sopranos lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. Mezzo-sopranos generally have a heavier, darker tone than sopranos, the mezzo-soprano voice resonates in a higher range than that of a contralto. The terms Dugazon and Galli-Marié are sometimes used to refer to light mezzo-sopranos, usually men singing within the female range are called countertenors since there is a lighter more breathy tonal quality difference. Within the mezzo-soprano voice type category are three generally recognized subcategories, coloratura mezzo-soprano, lyric mezzo-soprano, and dramatic mezzo-soprano, a coloratura mezzo-soprano has a warm lower register and an agile high register. The roles they sing often demand not only the use of the register but also leaps into the upper tessitura with highly ornamented. They have a range from approximately the G below middle C to the B two octaves above middle C, some coloratura mezzo-sopranos can sing up to high C or high D, but this is very rare. What distinguishes these voices from being called sopranos is their extension into the register and warmer vocal quality. Although coloratura mezzo-sopranos have impressive and at times thrilling high notes, they are most comfortable singing in the middle of their range, many of the hero roles in the operas of Handel and Monteverdi, originally sung by male castrati, can be successfully sung today by coloratura mezzo-sopranos. Rossini demanded similar qualities for his heroines, and Vivaldi wrote roles frequently for this voice as well. Coloratura mezzo-sopranos also often sing lyric-mezzo-soprano roles or soubrette roles, coloratura mezzo-soprano roles in operas, The lyric mezzo-soprano has a range from approximately the G below middle C to the A two octaves above middle C. This voice has a smooth, sensitive and at times lachrymose quality. Lyric mezzo-sopranos do not have the agility of the coloratura mezzo-soprano or the size of the dramatic mezzo-soprano. The lyric mezzo-soprano is ideal for most trouser roles and this voice has less vocal facility than the coloratura mezzo-soprano
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Soprano
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A soprano is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The sopranos vocal range is from approximately middle C =261 Hz to high A =880 Hz in choral music, in four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto. The lyric soprano is the most common female singing voice, the word soprano comes from the Italian word sopra, as the soprano is the highest pitch human voice, often given to the leading female roles in operas. The term soprano is also based on the Latin word superius which, like soprano, the word superius was especially used in choral and other multi-part vocal music between the 13th and 16th centuries. The soprano has the highest vocal range of all voice types, a soprano and a mezzo-soprano have a similar range, but their tessituras will lie in different parts of that range. The low extreme for sopranos is roughly A3 or B♭3, within opera, the lowest demanded note for sopranos is F3. Often low notes in higher voices will project less, lack timbre, however, rarely is a soprano simply unable to sing a low note in a song within a soprano role. The high extreme, at a minimum, for non-coloratura sopranos is soprano C, a couple of roles have optional E♭6s, as well. In the coloratura repertoire several roles call for E♭6 on up to F6, in rare cases, some coloratura roles go as high as G6 or G♯6, such as Mozarts concert aria Popoli di Tessaglia. Or the title role of Jules Massenets opera Esclarmonde, while not necessarily within the tessitura, a good soprano will be able to sing her top notes full-throated, with timbre and dynamic control. In opera, the tessitura, vocal weight, and timbre of voices, a singers tessitura is where the voice has the best timbre, easy volume, and most comfort. Within the soprano voice type category are five generally recognized subcategories, coloratura soprano, soubrette, lyric soprano, spinto soprano, the coloratura soprano may be a lyric coloratura or a dramatic coloratura. The lyric coloratura soprano is a very agile light voice with a high upper extension capable of fast vocal coloratura, Light coloraturas have a range of approximately middle C to high F with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing somewhat higher or lower. Dramatic coloraturas have a range of approximately low B to high F with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing higher or lower. In classical music and opera, a soubrette soprano refers to both a type and a particular type of opera role. A soubrette voice is light with a bright, sweet timbre, a tessitura in the mid-range, the soubrette voice is not a weak voice, for it must carry over an orchestra without a microphone like all voices in opera. The voice, however, has a lighter weight than other soprano voices with a brighter timbre
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Bass (voice type)
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A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C. Its tessitura, or comfortable range, is defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef. Categories of bass voices vary according to style and classification system. Italians favour subdividing basses into the basso cantante, basso buffo, the American system identifies the bass-baritone, comic bass, lyric bass, and dramatic bass. The German fach system offers further distinctions, Spielbaß, Schwerer Spielbaß, Charakterbaß, rare is the performer who embodies a single fach without also touching repertoire from another category. Cultural influence and individual variation create a variation in range. Many British composers such as Benjamin Britten have written parts for bass that center far higher than the bass tessitura as implied by the clef, the Harvard Dictionary of Music defines the range as being from the E below low C to middle C. The bass has the lowest vocal range of all voice types, the low extreme for basses is generally C2. However, several extreme bass singers, referred to as basso profondos, within opera, the lowest note in the standard bass repertoire is D2, sung by the character Osmin in Mozarts Die Entführung aus dem Serail, but few roles fall below F2. The high extreme, a few roles in the standard repertoire call for a high F♯ or G. In the operatic repertoire, the highest notes are a G♯4 and, in the aria Fra lombre e glorrori in Handels serenata Aci. Basso cantante is a higher, more lyrical voice and it is produced using a more Italianate vocal production, and possesses a faster vibrato, than its closest Germanic/Anglo-Saxon equivalent, the bass-baritone. Hoher Bass or high bass or often a dramatic bass-baritone, jugendlicher Bass denotes the role of a young man sung by a bass, regardless of the age of the singer. They are usually the blustering antagonist of the hero/heroine or the fool in bel canto operas. English equivalent, dramatic bass Basso profondo is the lowest bass voice type, steane in Voices, Singers & Critics, the basso profondo voice derives from a method of tone-production that eliminates the more Italian quick vibrato. In its place is a kind of tonal solidity, a front, which may nevertheless prove susceptible to the other kind of vibrato. Dramatic basso profondo is a basso profondo voice
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Contralto
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A contralto is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto voice type is divided into the coloratura, lyric. Contralto is primarily meaningful only in reference to classical and operatic singing, the term contralto is only applied to female singers, men singing in a similar range are called countertenors. A true contralto is often regarded as the rarest of the female voices, some vocal theorists have found that the vocal folds are thicker than those present in other female voices. Studies have used cameras to photograph visible differences which are found in countertenors. The contralto has the lowest vocal range of the voice types. The contralto voice range is between tenor and mezzo-soprano, although tenors and baritones are usually male singers, some women can sing as low and are called female tenors or female baritones. With the exception of very rare female singers, such terms are usually informal, more formal terminology would be contralto profundo and contralto basso or oktavistka but these are not traditionally named among the fach system. Some of the rare contraltos that can sing the female equivalent of tenor and baritone include Zarah Leander, Ruby Helder, within the contralto voice type category are three generally recognized subcategories, coloratura contralto, lyric contralto, and dramatic contralto. Given its deviations from the norms, this voice type is quite rare. The lyric contralto voice is lighter than a dramatic contralto but not capable of the ornamentation and this class of contralto, lighter in timbre than the others, is the most common today and usually ranges from the E below middle C to the second G above middle C. The dramatic contralto is the deepest, darkest, and heaviest contralto voice, usually having a heavier tone, singers in this class are rare. True operatic contraltos are rare, and the operatic literature contains few roles written specifically for them, a common saying among contraltos is that they may play only witches, bitches, or britches. Examples of contralto roles in the operatic repertoire include the following. * indicates a role that may also be sung by a mezzo-soprano, category of contraltos List of operatic contraltos Fach, the German system for classifying voices Voice classification in non-classical music List of contraltos in non-classical music Coffin, Berton. Coloratura, Lyric and Dramatic Soprano, Vol.1, vocal Workouts for the Contemporary Singer. Media related to Contralto vocalists at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of Contralto at Wiktionary
