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.
Richard Strauss
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Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Strauss was also a prominent conductor in Western Europe and the Americas, enjoying quasi-celebrity status as his compositions became standards of orchestral and operatic repertoire. Strauss was born on 11 June 1864 in Munich, the son of Josephine and Franz Strauss, in his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of six and continued to write music almost until his death, during his boyhood Strauss attended orchestra rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra, where he received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor. In 1872 he started receiving violin instruction at the Royal School of Music from Benno Walter, in 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. The influence of Wagners music on Strausss style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it. Indeed, in the Strauss household, the music of Richard Wagner was viewed with deep suspicion, in later life, Strauss said that he deeply regretted the conservative hostility to Wagners progressive works. Nevertheless, Strausss father undoubtedly had a influence on his sons developing taste. In early 1882 in Vienna he gave the first performance of his Violin Concerto in D minor, playing a piano reduction of the part himself. The same year he entered Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he studied philosophy and art history, Strauss learned the art of conducting by observing Bülow in rehearsal. Bülow was very fond of the man and decided that Strauss should be his successor as conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra when Bülow resigned in 1885. Strausss compositions at time were indebted to the style of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn. 1, Op.11, is representative of this period and is a staple of modern horn repertoire, Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being irascible, garrulous, eccentric and outspoken, throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he preferred the soprano voice to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles. The Strausses had one son, Franz, in 1897, Franz married Alice von Grab-Hermannswörth, daughter of a Jewish industrialist, in a Roman Catholic ceremony in 1924. Franz and Alice had two sons, Richard and Christian, some of Strausss first compositions were solo instrumental and chamber works. After 1890 Strauss composed very infrequently for chamber groups, his energies being almost completely absorbed with large-scale orchestral works and operas. Four of his pieces are actually arrangements of portions of his operas, including the Daphne-Etude for solo violin and the String Sextet
3.
Ernst von Schuch
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Ernst Edler von Schuch, born Ernst Gottfried Schuch was an Austrian conductor who became famous through his working collaborations with Richard Strauss at the Dresden Court Opera. Schuch first studied law but then turned to music, trained at first by E. Stolz, there in 1872 he became Music director at the Court Opera, from 1873 Royal Kapellmeister with Julius Rietz, later with Franz Wüllner. In 1878, he was appointed Royal Professor, in 1882 he undertook the direction of the Court Opera with the title of privy councillor, and in 1889 became its general music director. From 1882 onward, he lived in Niederlößnitz in the Weintraubenstraße, in 1898, he was ennobled by the Austrian emperor and in 1899 was appointed to the Saxon Confidential Privy Council. His period of influence is known as the Schuch era in operatic performing history. Tours as guest conductor in Berlin, Munich, Vienna and Paris aside, he remained committed to Dresden until 1914 and he created a surpassing ensemble and enlarged the orchestra to make it one of the greatest in the world. Also highly valued as a conductor, he was particularly known in the concert hall for his renditions of the orchestral works of Felix Draeseke. He married coloratura soprano Clementine von Schuch-Proska, who became a member of Dresdens Royal Theatre Company. Their daughter Liesel von Schuch sang in Dresden and Vienna, a. Eaglefield-Hull, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians P. Sakolowsky, E. Schuch. Gerhard M. Dienes, „mit mir. “ Ernst von Schuch, ein Grazer als Generalmusikdirektor in Dresden. ISBN 3-900764-20-4 E. Krause, Richard Strauss, Ernst von Schuch und Dresden, in, Blätter der Staatstheater Dresden, 1963/64 Richard Strauss/Ernst von Schuch, Richard Strauss - Ernst von Schuch. ISBN 3-89487-329-9 Große Kreisstadt Radebeul, Stadtlexikon Radebeul, ISBN 3-938460-05-9 Literature of and about Ernst von Schuch in the Catalogue of the German National Library
4.
Robert Sterl
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Robert Hermann Sterl was a German painter and graphic artist. He was the son of a stonemason, from 1881 to 1888, he attended the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under Leon Pohle and Julius Scholtz, later becoming a master student of Ferdinand Pauwels. A stay at the colony in Goppeln near Bannewitz introduced him to impressionism. After leaving Pauwels studio, he worked as a painter and portraitist and, until 1904. In 1893, he one of the founding members of the Dresden Secession. He was appointed a Professor at the Academy in 1906, where he taught until 1931, and became an associate member of the Berlin Secession in 1909. From 1913 to 1930, he was a member of the Dresdner Galeriekommission and, from 1920, had a seat on the Gallery Advisory Board, when Gotthardt Kuehl died in 1915, Sterl took over his Master Class. During World War I, he worked as a war painter, on the Western Front in 1915, after the war, he bought a house in Struppen and built a spacious studio there. In addition to the usual impressionist subject matter, he painted musicians and workers and he was sympathetic to liberal causes, producing many socially conscious works, some of which are set in Russia, where he had travelled briefly before the war. Two of his paintings were labelled degenerate art in 1937 and removed from the Galerie Neue Meister, during the GDR years, his works were praised for some of the same reasons the Nazis had condemned them. He died after an illness and was buried at his home. The Robert and Helene Sterl Foundation was created just before his death in 1931 and, since 1981, beginning in 1997, the Foundation and related organizations have awarded the Robert Sterl Prize to a master student at the Academy. The prize includes €3,000 and an exhibit at the museum, Robert Sterl und die Kinder, Gemälde, Graphiken und Zeichnungen im Robert-Sterl-Haus, Text by Horst Zimmermann. Guide book, Sammelstiftungen des Bezirkes Dresden,1998, Robert-Sterl-Haus, Naundorf/Struppen, Sächsische Museen, Vol.14, Sächsische Landesstelle für Museumswesen, Joachim Voigtmann, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-422-03103-0. Robert Sterl, Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde und Ölskizzen, edited by Kristina Popova with Birgit Dalbajewa and Gisbert Porstmann, Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2011, Horst Zimmermann, Der Maler Robert Sterl, Leben und Werk in Briefen und Selbstzeugnissen, Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2011, ISBN 978-3-942422-62-8. Robert-Sterl-Haus, museum website Drawings by Sterl @ Deutsche Fotothek Works by Robert Sterl, literature by and about Robert Sterl in the German National Library catalogue
5.
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
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Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal was an Austrian prodigy, a novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist. His great-grandfather, Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal, from whom his family inherited the noble title Edler von Hofmannsthal, was a Jewish merchant ennobled by the Austrian emperor and he began to write poems and plays from an early age. Some of his works were written under pseudonyms, such as Loris Melikow and Theophil Morren. He met the German poet Stefan George at the age of seventeen and had poems published in Georges journal. He studied law and later philology in Vienna but decided to devote himself to writing upon graduating in 1901, along with Peter Altenberg and Arthur Schnitzler, he was a member of the avant garde group Young Vienna. In 1900 Hofmannsthal met the composer Richard Strauss for the first time and he later wrote libretti for several of his operas, including Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier with Harry von Kessler, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Die ägyptische Helena, and Arabella. In 1911 he adapted the 15th century English morality play Everyman as Jedermann, the play later became a staple at the Salzburg Festival. During the First World War Hofmannsthal held a government post and he wrote speeches and articles supporting the war effort, and emphasizing the cultural tradition of Austria-Hungary. The end of the war spelled the end of the old monarchy in Austria, nevertheless, the years after the war were very productive ones for Hofmannsthal, he continued with his earlier literary projects, almost without a break. In 1920, Hofmannsthal, along with Max Reinhardt, founded the Salzburg Festival and his later plays revealed a growing interest in religious, particularly Roman Catholic, themes. Among his writings was a screenplay for a version of Der Rosenkavalier directed by Robert Wiene. In 1901 he married Gertrud Gerty Schlesinger, the daughter of a Viennese banker, Gerty, who was Jewish, converted to Christianity before their marriage. They settled in Rodaun, not far from Vienna, and had three children, Christiane, Franz, and Raimund, on 13 July 1929 his son Franz committed suicide. Two days later, shortly after attending Franzs funeral, Hugo himself died of a stroke at Rodaun and he was buried wearing the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, as he had requested. In early 1929 his daughter Christiane married German indologist, Heinrich Zimmer, who taught at University of Greifswald, Heidelberg University, after they moved to New Rochelle, New York, her husband became a Visiting Lecturer in Philosophy at Columbia University. On 21 January 1933 his son Raimund married Ava Alice Muriel Astor, daughter of John Jacob Astor IV, after divorcing Ava in 1939, Raimund later married Lady Elizabeth Paget. On 18 October 1902 Hofmannsthal published a letter in the Berlin Daily. It was purportedly written in 1603 by Philip, Lord Chandos to Francis Bacon and this letter reflects the growing distrust of and dissatisfaction with language that so characterizes the Modern era, and Chandoss dissolving personality is not only individual but societal
6.
Semperoper
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The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden. It is also home to the Semperoper ballet, the building is located near the Elbe River in the historic centre of Dresden, Germany. The opera house was built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841. After a devastating fire in 1869, the house was rebuilt, partly again by Semper. The opera house has a history of premieres, including major works by Richard Wagner. The first opera house at the location of todays Semperoper was built by the architect Gottfried Semper and it opened on 13 April 1841 with an opera by Carl Maria von Weber. The building style itself is debated among many, as it has features that appear in three styles, Early Renaissance and Baroque, with Corinthian style pillars typical of Greek classical revival. Perhaps the most suitable label for this style would be eclecticism, where influences from many styles are used, nevertheless, the opera building, Sempers first, is regarded as one of the most beautiful European opera houses. Following a devastating fire in 1869, the citizens of Dresden immediately set about rebuilding their opera house and they demanded that Gottfried Semper do the reconstruction, even though he was then in exile because of his involvement in the May 1849 uprising in Dresden. The architect had his son, Manfred Semper, build the opera house using his plans. Completed in 1878, it was built in Neo-Renaissance style, during the construction period, performances were held at the Gewerbehaussaal, which opened in 1870. The building is considered to be an example of Dresden Baroque architecture. It is situated on the Theatre Square in central Dresden on the bank of the Elbe River, on top of the portal there is a Panther quadriga with a statue of Dionysos. The interior was created by architects of the time, such as Johannes Schilling, monuments on the portal depict artists, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, William Shakespeare, Sophocles, Molière and Euripides. The building also features work by Ernst Rietschel and Ernst Julius Hähnel, in the pre-war years, the Semperoper premiered many of the works of Richard Strauss. In 1945, during the last months of World War II, the building was destroyed again. Exactly 40 years later, on 13 February 1985, the reconstruction was completed. It was rebuilt to be almost identical to its appearance before the war, but with the benefit of new stage machinery, the Semperoper reopened with the opera that was performed just before the buildings destruction in 1945, Carl Maria von Webers Der Freischütz
7.
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
8.
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai
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Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, politician, and diplomat. The heroine, Lodoiska, was modelled on the wife of a jeweller in the Palais Royal and she divorced her husband in 1792 and married Louvet in 1793. A sort of farce at the expense of the army of the Royalist émigrés, La Grande Revue des armes noire et blanche, had, however, better success, it ran for twenty-five nights. This led to Louvets election to the Jacobin Club, for which, as he wrote bitterly in his Memoirs, on 25 December 1791 he presented at the tribune of the Legislative Assembly his Petition contre les princes, which would have major influence during the First French Empire. Elected deputy to the Assembly for the départment of Loiret, he gave his first speech in January 1792 and his courageous attitude at the kings trial, when he supported the appeal to the people over the outright death penalty, added to hostility towards his party. Nonetheless, he defended the Girondists to the last moment, displaying an incriminating courage, after the crisis of 31 May 1793, when François Hanriot and the sans-culottes stormed the Convention, he joined his defeated faction in their flight from Paris. His wife Lodoiska, who had cooperated in his campaigns, was also placed in danger by the developments. His conflict with the Montagnards had not made him reactionary, he attacked the Jeunesse dorée, La Sentinelle reappeared, under his auspices, preaching union among republicans. Under the Directory he was elected a member of the Council of Five Hundred, of which he was secretary, meanwhile, he had returned to his trade and set up a booksellers shop in the Palais Royal. But, in spite of the fact that he had once more denounced the Jacobins in La Sentinelle and his shop was attacked by the young men with cries of À bas la Loupe, à bas la belle Ledoiska, à bas les gardes du corps de Louvet. He and his wife were insulted in the streets and the theatres, À bas les Louvets et les Louvetants. the Directory appointed him to the consulship at Palermo, in the Kingdom of Naples, but he died before taking up his post. In 1795 Louvet published a portion of his Memoirs under the title of Quelques notices pour lhistoire et le récit de mes perils depuis le 31 mai 1793. They were mainly written in the various hiding-places in which Louvet took refuge and they form a major document for the study of the psychology of the Revolution, as they give insight into the Louvets own states of mind and political choices. The first complete edition of the Mémoires de Louvet de Couvrai, edited, with preface, notes and tables and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
9.
1911 in music
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This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1911. January 26 - Première of the opera Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, in Dresden, the librettist is Hugo von Hofmannsthal, april 8 - Gustav Mahler embarks from New York to France, he enters a clinic in Paris, where he dies just over a month later. May 19 - Maurice Ravels opera, Lheure espagnole, is premiered at the Opéra-Comique, may 24 - Edward Elgar conducts the premiere of his Symphony No.2 in London. June 15 - Igor Stravinskys ballet Petrushka is premiered in Paris, june 29 - Bernard Herrmann born in New York. July - Frank Bridge completes his orchestral suite The Sea, while staying at Eastbourne, november 20 - Gustav Mahlers Das Lied von der Erde is premièred in Munich, after the composers death, with his friend and former assistant Bruno Walter conducting at the request of Alma Mahler. Date unknown Aino Ackté and other prominent opera singers found the Domestic Opera in Finland, elsässisches Fahnenlied is adopted as the anthem of the Republic of Alsace-Lorraine. 16-year-old Carl Orff publishes his first compositions, the Society of Women Musicians is co-founded by Marion Scott and others. Gustav Holst wrote the Second Suite in F for concert band, after That I Want A Little More w. Alfred Bryan m. Fred Fisher After The Honeymoon w. m, Irving Berlin Alexanders Ragtime Band w. m. Irving Berlin All Alone w. William Dillon m. Harry Von Tilzer Any Old Iron w. m, Charles Collins & Terry Sheppard Archibald, Certainly Not w. m. Alfred Glover & John St John Baby Rose by Louis Weslyn Billy w. Joe Goodwin m. James Kendis & Herman Paley Bring Back My Lovin Man w. m, Irving Berlin Cant You Take It Back And Change It For A Boy. w. m. Thurland Chattaway Core ngrato w. Riccardo Cordiferro, m, salvatore Cardillo Dalys Reel m. Joseph M. Daly Down Home Rag m. Wilbur Sweatman Down The Field w. Caleb OConnor m. Stanleigh P. Friedman El Choclo w. Francice Luban m, angel G. Villoldo Everybodys Doing it Now w. m. Irving Berlin The Fire Bird m, katie Moss The Gaby Glide w. Harry Pilcer m. Louis Hirsch Hello. Gus Edwards The Little Grey Home In The West w. D. Eardley-Wilmot m, hermann Löhr Love Is Mine w. Edward Teschemacher m. Clarence G. Gartner Make Me Love You Like I Never Loved Before w. Alfred Bryan m. Fred Fisher Mary OHoolihan Berlin Moonlight Bay w. Edward Madden m, percy Wenrich Movin Man Dont Take My Baby Grand w. Bert Kalmar m. Ted Snyder My Beautiful Lady w. C. M. S. McLellan m. Ivan Caryll My Hula Hula Love w. Edward Madden m, percy Wenrich My Rosary Of Dreams w. m. E. F. Dusenberg & C. M. Denison Naughty, Naughty, Naughty w. Harry Williams m, egbert Van Alstyne The Oceana Roll w. Roger Lewis m
10.
Theatre director
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The directors function is to ensure the quality and completeness of theatre production and to lead the members of the creative team into realizing their artistic vision for it. If the production he or she is mounting is a new piece of writing or a translation of a play, in contemporary theatre, after the playwright, the director is generally the primary visionary, making decisions on the artistic concept and interpretation of the play and its staging. Different directors occupy different places of authority and responsibility, depending on the structure, Directors use a wide variety of techniques, philosophies, and levels of collaboration. In ancient Greece, the birthplace of European drama, the writer bore principal responsibility for the staging of his plays, the author-director would also train the chorus, sometimes compose the music, and supervise every aspect of production. The fact that the director was called didaskalos, the Greek word for teacher, a miniature by Jean Fouquet from 1460 bears one of the earliest depictions of a director at work. Holding a prompt book, the central figure directs, with the aid of a long stick, from Renaissance times up until the 19th century, the role of director was often carried by the actor-manager. This would usually be an actor in a troupe who took the responsibility for choosing the repertoire of work, staging it. This was the case for instance with Commedia dellArte companies and English actor-managers like Colley Cibber, the modern theatre director can be said to have originated in the staging of elaborate spectacles of the Meininger Company under George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. The management of large numbers of extras and complex stagecraft matters necessitated an individual to take on the role of overall coordinator. This gave rise to the role of the director in modern theatre, simultaneously, Constantin Stanislavski, principally an actor-manager, would set up the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia and similarly emancipate the role of the director as artistic visionary. The French regisseur is also used to mean a stage director. A more common term for theatre director in French is metteur en scène, post World War II, the actor-manager slowly started to disappear, and directing become a fully fledged artistic activity within the theatre profession. The director originating artistic vision and concept, and realizing the staging of a production, a cautionary note was introduced by the famed director Sir Tyrone Guthrie who said the only way to learn how to direct a play, is. To get a group of actors simple enough to allow you to let you direct them, most European countries nowadays know some form of professional directing training, usually at drama schools or conservatoires, or at universities. In the early days such programmes typically led to the staging of one major production in the third year. At the University of California, Irvine, Keith Fowler led for many years a programme based on the premise that directors are autodidacts who need as many opportunities to direct as possible. Under Fowler, graduate student directors would stage between five and ten productions during their residencies, with each production receiving detailed critiques. Directing is an artform that has grown with the development of theatre theory, with the emergence of new trends in theatre, so too have directors adopted new methodologies and engaged in new practices
11.
Max Reinhardt
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Max Reinhardt was an Austrian-born American theatre and film director, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he is regarded as one of the most prominent directors of German-language theatre in the early 20th century, in 1920, he established the Salzburg Festival with the performance of Hofmannsthals Jedermann. Reinhardt was born Maximilian Goldmann in the spa town of Baden near Vienna, the son of Wilhelm Goldmann, a Jewish merchant from Stomfa, Hungary, having finished school, he began an apprenticeship at a bank, but already took acting lessons. In 1890, he gave his debut on a stage in Vienna with the artists name Max Reinhardt. In 1893 he performed at the re-opened Salzburg City Theatre and one later joined the Deutsches Theater ensemble under director Otto Brahm in Berlin. In 1901, Reinhardt together with Friedrich Kayßler and several other colleagues founded the Schall und Rauch Kabarett stage in Berlin. Re-opened as Kleines Theater it was the first of numerous stages, from 1903 to 1905, he managed the Neues Theater and in 1906 acquired the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. In 1911, he premiered with Karl Vollmöllers The Miracle at Olympia, by employing powerful staging techniques, and harmonising stage design, language, music and choreography, Reinhardt introduced new dimensions into German theatre. The Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, which is arguably the most important German-language acting school, was installed implementing his ideas, in 1910, Siegfried Jacobsen wrote his book entitled Max Reinhardt. In 1914, he was persuaded to sign the Manifesto of the Ninety-Three and he was signatory 66, he later expressed regret at signing. By 1930, he ran 11 stages in Berlin and, in addition, in the United States, he successfully directed The Miracle in 1924, and a popular stage version of Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream in 1927. Reinhardt followed that success by directing a film version in 1935 using a different cast. Mickey Rooney and Olivia de Havilland had also appeared in Reinhardts 1934 stage production, the Nazis banned the film because of the Jewish ancestry of both Reinhardt and Felix Mendelssohn, whose music was used throughout the film. After the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi-governed Germany in 1938, he emigrated first to Britain, Reinhardt opened the Reinhardt School of the Theatre in Hollywood, on Sunset Boulevard. Several notable stars of the day received classical training, among them actress Nanette Fabray. In 1940, he became a citizen of the United States. At that time, he was married to his wife, actress Helene Thimig. Compared with most of his contemporaries, Reinhardt was more interested in film than in theater and he made films as a director and from time to time also as a producer
12.
Bourgeoisie
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A legally defined class of the Middle Ages to the end of the Ancien Régime in France, that of inhabitants having the rights of citizenship and political rights in a city. This bourgeoisie destroyed aristocratic privilege and established civic equality after the French monarchy collapsed, the aristocracy crumbled because it refused to reform institutions and financial systems. An affluent and often opulent stratum of the class who stand opposite the proletariat class. In English, bourgeoisie identified a social class oriented to economic materialism and hedonism, hence, since the 19th century, the term bourgeoisie usually is politically and sociologically synonymous with the ruling upper class of a capitalist society. The 18th century saw a partial rehabilitation of bourgeois values in such as the drame bourgeois and bourgeois tragedy. The bourgeoisie emerged as a historical and political phenomenon in the 11th century when the bourgs of Central and this urban expansion was possible thanks to economic concentration due to the appearance of protective self-organisation into guilds. Guilds arose when individual businessmen conflicted with their feudal landlords who demanded greater rents than previously agreed. In English, the bourgeoisie is often used to denote the middle classes. In fact, the French term encompasses both the upper and middle classes, a misunderstanding which has occurred in other languages as well. The bourgeoisie in France and many French-speaking countries consists of four evolving social layers, petite bourgeoisie, moyenne bourgeoisie, grande bourgeoisie, the petite bourgeoisie consists of people who have experienced a brief ascension in social mobility for one or two generations. It usually starts with a trade or craft, and by the second and third generation, the petite bourgeois would belong to the British lower middle class and would be American middle income. They are distinguished mainly by their mentality, and would differentiate themselves from the proletariat or working class and this class would include artisans, small traders, shopkeepers, and small farm owners. They are not employed, but may not be able to afford employees themselves, the moyenne bourgeoisie or middle bourgeoisie contains people who have solid incomes and assets, but not the aura of those who have become established at a higher level. They tend to belong to a family that has been bourgeois for three or more generations, some members of this class may have relatives from similar backgrounds, or may even have aristocratic connections. The moyenne bourgeoisie is the equivalent of the British and American upper-middle classes, the grande bourgeoisie are families that have been bourgeois since the 19th century, or for at least four or five generations. Members of these tend to marry with the aristocracy or make other advantageous marriages. This bourgeoisie family has acquired an established historical and cultural heritage over the decades, the names of these families are generally known in the city where they reside, and their ancestors have often contributed to the regions history. These families are respected and revered and they belong to the upper class, and in the British class system are considered part of the gentry
13.
Feuersnot
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Feuersnot, Op.50, is a Singgedicht or opera in one act by Richard Strauss. The German libretto was written by Ernst von Wolzogen, based on J. Ketels report Das erloschene Feuer zu Audenaerde, thematically, the opera has been interpreted as a parody of Richard Wagners idea of redemption through love, with the character of Kunrad representing Strauss himself. The conceptual framework for the stems from the Nietzschean perspective that had inspired Strauss in his tone poems Till Eulenspiegel. Strauss and von Wolzogen shared the view that the source of inspiration was material not transcendental, the librettist for the opera was Ernst von Wolzogen, who in 1901 founded the Überbrettl venue, the start of the German Kabarett movement which was later to blossom in the Weimar Republic. The mood matched Strausss desire for something irreverent and cynical, with much word-play, what struck the contemporary audiences most was the bawdiness and innuendo. There was much pressure on the composer to tone it down, but Strauss, at this time, the sexual and erotic subtexts and psychology were disturbing to audiences, as well as the perceived advanced nature of the music itself to more conservative-minded musicians. The premiere at the Dresden Court Opera on 21 November 1901 was a success, Gustav and Alma Mahler attended. The success in Dresden led to Feuersnot being staged in theaters across Germany. Mounting the opera in Vienna proved more problematic for Gustav Mahler because of the need to satisfy the uncooperative censor, I fear you may have to accept changes. Alas, there is no placating these powers”. The Viennese premiere finally took place on 29 January 1902 with Strauss attending and he wrote to Mahler to send you my heartfelt thanks for the incomparably beautiful rendition you gave of my work last week…. The Viennese public and critics were less enthusiastic than the German, Mahler wrote to Strauss on the 18 February I am so disgusted at the attitude of the Viennese press, and most of all by the publics total acquiescence to them, that I cannot get over it. He took the work off after four disappointing turn-outs, although he did put on one performance that year on 14 March. Strauss took the opera to Berlin where it was more of a success with seven performances, however, the Empress took a dislike to the bawdiness and Emperor Wilhelm had the opera banned. Strauss continued to include the music from the scene in his orchestral concerts. The opera was revived twice at Vienna, first in 1905 by Mahler with a new production running for 7 performances, Strauss wrote towards the end of his life …in nearly all of the biographical articles I read I miss the correct attitude towards Feuersnot. One forgets that this far from perfect work still introduces into the nature of the old opera a new subjective style at just the very beginning of the century. It is in its way a sort of upbeat, the Zürich premiere did not take place until 1953. The New York City premiere took place in 1985, at the Manhattan School of Music and it was presented by The Santa Fe Opera during its summer 1988 festival season
14.
Salome (opera)
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Salome, Op.54, is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmanns German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer, the opera is famous for its Dance of the Seven Veils. The final scene is frequently heard as a concert-piece for dramatic sopranos, Oscar Wilde originally wrote his Salomé in French. Strauss saw the play in Lachmanns version and immediately set to work on an opera, the plays formal structure was well-suited to musical adaptation. Wilde himself described Salomé as containing refrains whose recurring motifs make it so like a piece of music, Strauss composed the opera to a German libretto, and that is the version that has become widely known. Marjorie Lawrence sang the role both in French and in German in the 1930s. The French version is less well known today, although it was revived in Lyon in 1990. In 2011, the French version was staged by Liège Opera, the combination of the Christian biblical theme, the erotic and the murderous, which so attracted Wilde to the tale, shocked opera audiences from its first appearance. This precedent has been followed, one early notable exception being that of Aino Ackté. It was first performed at the Hofoper in Dresden on 9 December 1905, Gustav Mahler could not gain the consent of the Vienna censor to have it performed, therefore it was not given at the Vienna State Opera until 1918. The Austrian premiere was given at the Graz Opera in 1906 under the composer, with Arnold Schoenberg, Giacomo Puccini, Alban Berg, Salome was banned in London by the Lord Chamberlains office until 1907. When it was given its premiere performance at Covent Garden in London under Thomas Beecham on 8 December 1910, it was modified, much to Beechams annoyance and later amusement. In New York, the took place on 22 January 1907 after which, under pressure from wealthy patrons. These patrons entreated the visiting Edward Elgar to lead the objections to the work, in 1930, Strauss took part in a festival of his music at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and conducted Salome on 5 November in a version with a slightly reduced orchestration. Today, Salome is a part of the operatic repertoire, there are numerous recordings. A great terrace in the Palace of Herod, set above the banqueting hall, some soldiers are leaning over the balcony. To the right there is a staircase, to the left, at the back. The moon is shining very brightly, the voice of the Prophet Jochanaan is heard from his prison in the palace cistern, Herod fears him and has ordered that no one should contact him, including Jerusalems High Priest
15.
Elektra (opera)
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Elektra, Op.58, is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which he adapted from his 1903 drama Elektra. The opera was the first of many collaborations between Strauss and Hofmannsthal and it was first performed at the Dresden State Opera on 25 January 1909. It was dedicated to his friends Natalie and Willy Levin, while based on ancient Greek mythology, the opera is highly modernist and expressionist. The other characters are Klytaemnestra, her mother and one of the murderers of her father Agamemnon, her sister, Chrysothemis, her brother, Orestes, various aspects from the myth are minimized as background to Elektras character and her obsession. These changes tightened the focus on Elektras furious lust for revenge, the result is a very modern, expressionistic retelling of the ancient Greek myth. Compared to Sophocless Electra, the opera presents raw, brutal, violent, ståle Wikshåland has analysed the use of time and temporality in the dramaturgy of Elektra. Elektra is the second of Strausss two highly modernist operas, characterized by cacophonous sections and atonal leitmotifs and these works highly contrasts with his earliest operas and his later period. The reception of Elektra in German-speaking countries was mostly divided amongst traditionalist and modernist lines, Elektra is one of the most frequently performed operas based on classical Greek mythology. Elektra received its UK premiere at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1910 with Edyth Walker in the title role, before the opera begins, Agamemnon has sacrificed Iphigenia on the ruse that she is to be married, and subsequently goes off to war against Troy. Iphigenias mother Klytaemnestra has thus come to hate her husband, Elektra has managed to send her brother away while remaining behind to keep her fathers memory alive, but all the while, suffering the scorn of her mother and the entire court. Five servants try to wash the courtyard of the Palace in Mycenae, while they do their work, they ask where can Elektra be, and she emerges from the shadows with a wild look on her face. The servants continue commenting how she came to be in that state, only one servant shows mercy for her, but she is taken away by the overseer to be flogged. Elektra comes back for her daily ritual in memory of her father, Elektra now starts imagining the day when her father will be avenged and then of the ensuing celebration in which she will lead the triumphal dance. She warns her sister that their plans to lock Elektra in a tower. Chrysothemis does not wish to go on living a half-death in her own house, she wants to leave, marry, as loud sounds are heard inside, Elektra mocks her sister that it is her wedding party. In reality, Klytaemnestra has yet again been awakened by her own nightmares of being killed by Orest, Chrysothemis begs Elektra to leave, wishing only to speak to her mother. Followed by her retinue, Klytaemnestra comes to make sacrifice to appease the gods. She asks the gods for the reason for her burdens, despite the protests of the Trainbearer and Confidante, Klytaemnestra climbs down to talk to Elektra
16.
Margarethe Siems
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Margarethe Siems was a German operatic soprano and voice teacher. Margarethe Siems was born in Breslau and she made her opera début at the Neues deutsches Theatre, Prague in 1902 as Marguerite de Valois in Meyerbeers Les Huguenots and became a member of the Dresden State Opera in 1908. At Dresden she sang in the premieres for both Elektra as Chrysothemis and Der Rosenkavalier as the Marschallin, Strauss considered her his ideal for the latter role which she also sang in the London premiere of Der Rosenkavalier. Her third Strauss premiere was as Zerbinetta in the first version of his Ariadne auf Naxos, Siems singing style was described by Michael Scott as instrumental rather than warmly emotional. Although Siems remained a member of the Dresden State Opera until 1922 and she then taught in Dresden and Breslau until 1940. One of her pupils was the German contralto, Sigrid Onegin. Towards the end of her life, Margarethe Siems moved back to Dresden where she died on 13 April 1952 at the age of 72, ISBN 0-19-311321-X Scott, Michael, The Record of Singing, Vol. I, Northeastern University Press,1993, p.168. ISBN 1-55553-163-6 Margarethe Siems on Isoldes-Liebestod. info – biography in German and extensive photo gallery
17.
Eva von der Osten
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Eva Helga Bertha von der Osten was a German soprano. She was born in Helgoland, the daughter of actor Emil von der Osten, Von der Osten debuted in 1902 at the Dresdner Hofoper and performed there regularly until the end of her career. She was a favorite of the Dresden opera-going public and sang many of the most important roles of the soprano repertory, Von der Osten also was active as an opera director and served in that capacity for the premiere performance of Richard Strauss’s Arabella. She created the role of Octavian in Strauss Der Rosenkavalier, Von der Osten’s career led to guest appearances in many of Europe’s leading opera houses. When she retired in 1927 after a 25-year career, Von der Osten had made over 2500 operatic appearances and she was married to the baritone Friedrich Plaschke and thus used the name Eva Plaschke-von der Osten. Von der Osten died in 1936 at her estate at Talmühlenstraße 49 in Kurort Hartha and she is buried in the Johannisfriedhof cemetery in Dresden-Tolkewitz beside her sister, the singer Vali von der Osten. Her nephew, Wolfgang Windgassen, was a held in similar stature. Photo of Eva von der Osten in Der Dämon by Anton Rubinstein, photo of Eva von der Osten als Sieglinde in Die Walküre by Richard Wagner
18.
Waltz
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The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple time, performed primarily in closed position. There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the waltz that date from 16th century Europe, the French philosopher Montaigne wrote of a dance he saw in 1580 in Augsburg, where the dancers held each other so closely that their faces touched. Kunz Haas wrote, Now they are dancing the godless Weller or Spinner, the peasants of Bavaria, Tyrol, and Styria began dancing a dance called Walzer, a dance for couples, around 1750. The Ländler, also known as the Schleifer, a dance in 34 time, was popular in Bohemia, Austria, and Bavaria. While the eighteenth century upper classes continued to dance the minuet, describing life in Vienna, Don Curzio wrote, The people were dancing mad. The ladies of Vienna are particularly celebrated for their grace and movements of waltzing of which they never tire, there is a waltz in the second act finale of the opera Una Cosa Rara written by Martin y Soler in 1786. Solers waltz was marked Andante con moto, or at a pace with motion, but the flow of the dance was sped-up in Vienna leading to the Geschwindwalzer. In the transition from country to town, the hopping of the Ländler, a known as Langaus, became a sliding step. In the 19th century, the word primarily indicated that the dance was a one, one would waltz in the polka to indicate rotating rather than going straight forward without turning. The Viennese custom is to anticipate the second beat of each measure, making it sound as if the third is late. The metronome speed for a full bar varies between 60 and 70, with the waltzes of the first Strauss often played faster than those of his sons. Shocking many when it was first introduced, the waltz became fashionable in Vienna around the 1780s, according to contemporary singer Michael Kelly, it reached England in 1791. During the Napoleonic Wars, infantry soldiers of the Kings German Legion introduced the dance to the people of Bexhill and it became fashionable in Britain during the Regency period, having been made respectable by the endorsement of Dorothea Lieven, wife of the Russian ambassador. Diarist Thomas Raikes later recounted that No event ever produced so great a sensation in English society as the introduction of the waltz in 1813, in the same year, a sardonic tribute to the dance by Lord Byron was anonymously published. Influential dance master and author of manuals, Thomas Wilson published A Description of the Correct Method of Waltzing in 1816. Come, its time to be going home, the waltz, and especially its closed position, became the example for the creation of many other ballroom dances. Subsequently, new types of waltz have developed, including many folk and it incorporated hesitations and was danced to fast music. A hesitation is basically a halt on the foot during the full waltz measure
19.
La Scala
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La Scala is an opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was known as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala. The premiere performance was Antonio Salieris Europa riconosciuta, most of Italys greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala during the past 200 years. The theatre is regarded as one of the opera and ballet theatres in the world and is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet. The theatre also has a school, known as the La Scala Theatre Academy. La Scalas season traditionally opens on 7 December, Saint Ambroses Day, all performances must end before midnight, and long operas start earlier in the evening when necessary. La Scala also hosts the Accademia dArti e Mestieri dello Spettacolo and its goal is to train a new generation of young musicians, technical staff, and dancers. A fire destroyed the theatre, the Teatro Regio Ducale, on 25 February 1776. The neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini produced a design but it was rejected by Count Firmian. A second plan was accepted in 1776 by Empress Maria Theresa, the new theatre was built on the former location of the church of Santa Maria alla Scala, from which the theatre gets its name. The church was deconsecrated and demolished, and over a period of two years the theatre was completed by Pietro Marliani, Pietro Nosetti and Antonio and Giuseppe Fe. The theatre had a total of 3,000 or so seats organized into 678 pit-stalls and its stage is one of the largest in Italy. Building expenses were covered by the sale of palchi, which were decorated by their owners. La Scala soon became the preeminent meeting place for noble and wealthy Milanese people, in the tradition of the times, the platea had no chairs and spectators watched the shows standing up. The orchestra was in sight, as the golfo mistico had not yet been built. Above the boxes, La Scala has a gallery—called the loggione—where the less wealthy can watch the performances, the gallery is typically crowded with the most critical opera aficionados, known as the loggionisti, who can be ecstatic or merciless towards singers perceived successes or failures. As with most of the theatres at that time, La Scala was also a casino, conditions in the auditorium, too, could be frustrating for the opera lover, as Mary Shelley discovered in September 1840, At the Opera they were giving Otto Nicolais Templario. La Scala was originally illuminated with 84 oil lamps mounted on the palcoscenico, to prevent the risks of fire, several rooms were filled with hundreds of water buckets
20.
Lucrezia Bori
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Lucrezia Bori was a Spanish operatic singer, a lyric soprano and a tireless and effective fundraiser for the Metropolitan Opera. Lucrezia Bori was born on December 24,1887, in Valencia and her real name was Lucrecia Borja y González de Riancho. Her father was an officer in the Spanish army and her family were descended from the influential family of the Italian Renaissance, the House of Borgia and she herself was named after her ancestor, Lucrezia Borgia. Her voice had a unique timbre and transparent quality unlike any present-day singer and she studied in Milan with Vidal and made her debut at the Teatro Adriano in Rome as Micaëla in Bizets Carmen on October 31,1908. In December,1910, she made her debut at La Scala as Carolina in Il Matrimonio Segreto and her career at the Metropolitan Opera began in the summer of 1910 during the Mets first visit to Paris. On June 9 of that year she replaced a singer who had become ill in the role of Manon in Puccinis Manon Lescaut, on the opening night of the 1912-13 season, she made her debut with the Met in New York when she sang Manon opposite Enrico Caruso. In 1915 she was forced to stop singing for an operation to remove nodes on her vocal cords. Following a lengthy convalescence, she returned to the stage in 1921, during the course of her career with the Opera, she appeared a total of 654 times and sang the leading role in 39 operas. She was famous for her portrayals of Manon in Massenets opera, Mimì in La bohème, Fiora in L amore dei trè rè, Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande, beginning late in 1932, Bori began a career as fundraiser. Early in 1933, Bori agreed to work with the Operas managers to obtain the funds, in this work she was not a figurehead. After a personal appeal from her during a radio broadcast of Manon and she also traveled widely and participated in numerous benefits, at which she performed. During this period of fundraising, she continued to out a arduous schedule of performance. It took only two months to raise the $300,000 that was needed, in May 1933, the chairman of the Metropolitan board publicly thanked Bori, saying she had accomplished a feat that was thought to be impossible. From 1933 to 1935 Bori served as chair of the Maintain the Metropolitan committee which had succeeded the Save the Metropolitan committee, to assure the viability of the 1934-35 opera season, this committee raised an amount approximately equal to the sum raised the previous year. In 1935, she was the first performer to be elected to the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Opera Association, in joining the board she continued to sit on its opera management committee. Her farewell gala on March 29,1936 was one of the events at the Metropolitan. Bori sang scenes from Manon and La traviata, with contributions from Flagstad, Melchior, Rethberg, Pinza, Ponselle, Martinelli, Tibbett, after her retirement from singing she was named chairman of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. Under her leadership the Guild collected musical instruments for military hospitals, Bori suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on May 2,1960, and died in Roosevelt Hospital on May 14
21.
Ines Maria Ferraris
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Ines Maria Ferraris was an Italian operatic soprano and pianist who sang for more than two decades at La Scala in addition to appearances on the international stage. Although popular in Italy, she had a devoted fanbase throughout South America. She is particularly remembered for portraying the role of Lisette in the world première of Puccinis La rondine in 1917, Ferraris was a child prodigy and began her career as a professional concert pianist at the young age of 12 after studying piano with Antonio Quartero. She later became interested in opera and began studying singing with Vittorio Vanzo in Milan and she gave her first professional performance as a vocalist in a concert in London in 1906. She made her professional operatic début two years later in Bologna as Philine in Mignon, in 1911 Ferraris debuted at La Scala as Carolina in Cimarosas Il matrimonio segreto. That same year she sang Sophie at La Scala in Italys first production of Der Rosenkavalier and she remained at La Scala for over 20 years, singing numerous roles mostly from the lighter lyric and soubrette repertoire. She became a favorite of Arturo Toscanini under whom she sang numerous parts at La Scala including Violetta in Verdis La traviata and Nannetta in Verdis Falstaff. She was also a friend of Conchita Supervia, with whom she performed many roles. During this time she frequently performed throughout Italy and in South America where she gained a big following. She notably sang the role in South Americas premiere of Ermanno Wolf-Ferraris Il segreto di Susanna at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Her other roles in that house include Oscar in Un ballo in maschera, the role in Catalanis La Wally. In 1916 Ferraris sang the role of Violetta at the Teatro Massimo Palermo, the following year she created the role of Lisette in the world première of Puccinis La rondine at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. She also made appearances at the Teatro di San Carlo in 1920-1921 and 1924. Ferraris was among the first generation of musicians to be recorded, most notably she can be heard on highlight recordings of Der Rosenkavalier as Sophie and Hänsel und Gretel as Gretel with Conchita Supervia, mementos of their association in both operas at La Scala. She also recorded the role of Gilda in the first complete recording of Rigoletto in 1916 with Cesare Formichi in the title role
22.
Vienna State Opera
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The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria and it was originally called the Vienna Court Opera. In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian Republic, the members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited from its orchestra. The opera house was the first major building on the Vienna Ringstrasse commissioned by the Viennese city expansion fund, work commenced on the house in 1861 and was completed in 1869, following plans drawn up by architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll. It was built in the Neo-Renaissance style by the renowned Czech architect, the somewhat coarser-grained Kelheimerstein was intended as the main stone to be used in the building of the opera house, but the necessary quantity was not deliverable. Breitenbrunner stone was suggested as a substitute for the Kelheimer stone, the staircases were constructed from polished Kaiserstein, while most of the rest of the interior was decorated with varieties of marble. The decision was made to use dimension stone for the exterior of the building, due to the monumental demand for stone, stone from Sóskút, widely used in Budapest, was also used. Three Viennese masonry companies were employed to supply enough masonry labour, Eduard Hauser, Anton Wasserburger, the foundation stone was laid on 20 May 1863. The building was, however, not very popular with the public, on the one hand, it did not seem as grand as the Heinrichshof, a private residence which was destroyed in World War II. Eduard van der Nüll committed suicide, and barely ten weeks later Sicardsburg died from tuberculosis so neither architect saw the completion of the building, the opening premiere was Don Giovanni, by Mozart, on May 25,1869. Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Elisabeth were present, towards the end of World War II, on March 12,1945, the opera was set alight by an American bombardment. The front section, which had been walled off as a precaution, remained intact including the foyer, with frescoes by Moritz von Schwind, the stairways, the vestibule. The auditorium and stage were, however, destroyed by flames as well as almost the entire décor, the State Opera was temporarily housed at the Theater an der Wien and at the Vienna Volksoper. Eventually the decision was made to rebuild the house as it had been. The Austrian Federal Chancellor Leopold Figl made the decision in 1946 to have an opera house again by 1949. An architectural competition was announced, which was won by Erich Boltenstern, in order to achieve a good acoustic, wood was the favoured building material, at the advice of, among others, Arturo Toscanini. In addition, the number of seats in the parterre was reduced, and the fourth gallery, the façade, entrance hall and the Schwind foyer were restored and remain in their original style. In 1947, the company went on tour to London, due to the appalling conditions at Theater an der Wien, the opera company leadership tried to raise significant quantities of money to speed up reconstruction of the original opera house
23.
Marie Gutheil-Schoder
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Marie Gutheil-Schoder was an important German soprano. Born Marie Schoder in Weimar, she married Gustav Gutheil in 1899 and she debuted in the secondary role of the First Lady at the Weimar Court Opera in The Magic Flute in her native city of Weimar in 1891. Gustav Mahler engaged her for the Vienna State Opera in 1900 and she appeared at the Royal Opera House as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier in 1913. One of her famous roles was her portrayal of a strange and she was seen in the 1914 Vienna premiere of Richard Strausss ballet, Josephslegende as Potiphars Wife. She created Esmeralda in the premiere of Franz Schmidts opera Notre Dame in the same year. Gutheil-Schoder created the fiercely difficult single role of Arnold Schoenbergs monodrama Erwartung in 1924 in Prague, earlier that year, she performed his Pierrot lunaire. Mahler termed her a genius, and she was highly regarded as a musician and singing-actress, although she seemed to be, as one Viennese critic wrote. In her later career, she became a director of opera. She was a pedagogue as well, one of her students being the mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens. She died at the age of 61, in Ilmenau, Germany, in 2004, Symposium Records issued a Compact Disc entitled Vienna – The Mahler Years. Included are the two duets Gutheil-Schoder recorded, along with recordings by Selma Kurz, Leo Slezak, Erik Schmedes, Lilli Lehmann, the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, by John Warrack and Ewan West, Oxford University Press,1996. ISBN 0-19-280028-0 Marie Guthiel-Schoder in a duet from La dame blanche, with Franz Naval
24.
Richard Mayr
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Richard Mayr was an Austrian operatic bass-baritone who was particularly admired for his performances in works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. He notably created the role of Barak, the Dyer in the premiere of Strausss Die Frau ohne Schatten. Mayr studied medicine in Vienna before being persuaded by Gustav Mahler to pursue a career as a singer, after studying at the Vienna Music Academy for several years, he made his professional opera début to critical acclaim at the Bayreuth Festival in 1902 as Hagen in Wagners Götterdämmerung. This led to his being engaged as a singer at the Vienna Hofoper by Mahler where he enjoyed a highly successful career that lasted for three decades. His first role in Vienna was Silva in Giuseppe Verdis Ernani, Mayr also sang at the Royal Opera, London from 1911-1913 and again from 1924 to 1931. He sang for three seasons at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, making his Met début as Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1927. He was also a mainstay at the Salzburg Festival, appearing every year there from 1921 until his retirement from the stage in 1934 and he is buried at St. Peter cemetery in Salzburg. Barak in Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, by John Warrack and Ewan West,782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
25.
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
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The Teatro dellOpera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has several changes of name as well modifications. The Teatro dellOpera was originally known as the Teatro Costanzi after the contractor who built it and it was financed by Costanzi, who commissioned the Milanese architect Achille Sfondrini, a specialist in the building and renovation of theatres. Designing the theatre, Sfondrini paid particular attention to the acoustics, conceiving the interior structure as a resonance chamber, as is evident from the horseshoe shape in particular. With a seating capacity of 2,212, the house had three tiers of boxes, an amphitheatre and two galleries, surmounted by a dome adorned with splendid frescoes by Annibale Brugnoli. Costanzi was obliged to manage the theater himself, under his direction, and despite financial problems, the opera house held many world premieres of operas, including Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni on 17 May 1890. For a brief period the theatre was managed by Costanzis son, Enrico, who gained renown by organizing another great premiere, in 1907 the Teatro Costanzi was purchased by the impresario Walter Mocchi on behalf of the Società Teatrale Internazionale e Nazionale. In 1912 Mocchis wife, Emma Carelli, became the director of the new Impresa Costanzi, as the theatre was later known. During the fourteen years of her tenure, major works which had not been performed before in Rome were staged, in November 1926 the Costanzi was bought by the Rome City Council and its name changed to Teatro Reale dellOpera. A partial rebuilding ensued, led by architect Marcello Piacentini and lasting fifteen months, the house re-opened on 27 February 1928 with the opera Nerone by Arrigo Boito. Chief among several major changes was the entrance, from the street formerly known as Via del Teatro to the opposite side. In addition, the amphitheatre inside the theatre was replaced by a tier of boxes. The interior was embellished by new stuccowork, decorations, and furnishings, including a magnificent chandelier measuring six meters in diameter, the theaters legendary acoustics still bear comparison with any other auditorium in the world. The seating capacity is about 1,600, the house was retrofitted with air-conditioning subsequent to a restoration, which provided improvements to the interior. The stucco work was restored, the great proscenium arch strengthened. The post-war period saw celebrated productions, including Mozarts Le nozze di Figaro in 1964 and Verdis Don Carlos in 1965, from 2001 to 2010, the music director and chief conductor of the company was Gianluigi Gelmetti. Later, Muti assumed a similar to that of music director. Notable productions under Muti have included Glucks Iphigénie en Aulide, Verdis Nabucco, Simon Boccanegra, the name Teatro Costanzi remains officially in use, to refer to the main auditorium
26.
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
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Thomas Beecham
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Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras. From the early 20th century until his death, Beecham was an influence on the musical life of Britain and. Born to an industrial family, Beecham began his career as a conductor in 1899. Among the works he introduced to England were Richard Strausss Elektra, Salome and Der Rosenkavalier, together with his younger colleague Malcolm Sargent, Beecham founded the London Philharmonic, and he conducted its first performance at the Queens Hall in 1932. In the 1940s he worked for three years in the United States where he was director of the Seattle Symphony and conducted at the Metropolitan Opera. After his return to Britain, he founded the Royal Philharmonic in 1946, Beechams repertoire was eclectic, sometimes favouring lesser-known composers over famous ones. His specialities included composers whose works were neglected in Britain before he became their advocate, such as Delius, other composers with whose music he was frequently associated were Haydn, Schubert, Sibelius and the composer he revered above all others, Mozart. Beecham was born in St Helens, Lancashire, in a house adjoining the Beechams Pills laxative factory founded by his grandfather and his parents were Joseph Beecham, the elder son of Thomas, and Josephine, née Burnett. In 1885, with the family firm flourishing financially, Joseph Beecham moved his family to a house in Ewanville, Huyton. Their former home was demolished to make room for an extension to the pill factory and he did not find university life to his taste and successfully sought his fathers permission to leave Oxford in 1898. He studied as a pianist, but had difficulty because of his small hands and he studied composition privately with Frederic Austin in Liverpool, Charles Wood in London, and Moritz Moszkowski in Paris. As a conductor, he was self-taught, Beecham first conducted in public in St Helens in October 1899, with an ad hoc ensemble comprising local musicians and players from the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hallé in Manchester. A month later, he stood in at short notice for the celebrated conductor Hans Richter at a concert by the Hallé to mark Joseph Beechams inauguration as mayor of St Helens, soon afterwards, Joseph Beecham secretly committed his wife to a mental hospital. Thomas and his elder sister Emily helped to secure their mothers release, Beecham was estranged from his father for ten years. Beechams professional début as a conductor was in 1902 at the Shakespeare Theatre, Clapham, with Balfes The Bohemian Girl and he was engaged as assistant conductor for a tour and was allotted four other operas, including Carmen and Pagliacci. A Beecham biographer calls the company grandly named but decidedly ramshackle, though Beechams Carmen was Zélie de Lussan, Beecham was also composing music in these early years, but he was not satisfied with his own efforts and instead concentrated on conducting. In 1906 Beecham was invited to conduct the New Symphony Orchestra, throughout his career, Beecham frequently chose to programme works to suit his own tastes rather than those of the paying public
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Metropolitan Opera
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The Metropolitan Opera, commonly referred to as The Met, is a company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager, the music director position is in transition as of 2016. The music director designate is Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the director emeritus is James Levine. The Met was founded in 1880 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, the Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. It presents about 27 different operas each year in a season lasts from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating schedule with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Moving to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966, performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday, several operas are presented in new productions each season. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other opera houses, the rest of the years operas are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons. The 2015-16 season comprised 227 performances of 25 operas, the operas in the Mets repertoire consist of a wide range of works, from 18th-century Baroque and 19th-century Bel canto to the Minimalism of the late 20th century. These operas are presented in staged productions that range in style from those with elaborate traditional decors to others that feature modern conceptual designs, the Mets performing company consists of a large symphony-sized orchestra, a chorus, childrens choir, and many supporting and leading solo singers. The company also employs numerous free-lance dancers, actors, musicians, the Mets roster of singers includes both international and American artists, some of whose careers have been developed through the Mets young artists programs. The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to New Yorks old established Academy of Music opera house, the subscribers to the Academys limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these old families were loath to admit New Yorks newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Operas founding subscribers determined to build a new house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. A group of some 22 men assembled at Delmonicos restaurant on April 28,1880 and they elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. The first Met subscribers included members of the Morgan, Roosevelt, the new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22,1883, and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The Academy of Musics opera season folded just three years after the Met opened, in its early decades the Met did not produce the opera performances itself but hired prominent manager/impresarios to stage a season of opera at the new Metropolitan Opera House. Henry Abbey served as manager for the season, 1883–84
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Alfred Hertz
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Alfred Hertz was a German conductor. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, as a child, he contracted infantile paralysis and walked with a cane after that. Hertz first came to prominence conducting Wagner at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, some of the performances he conducted were experimentally recorded by the Mets librarian Lionel Mapleson on what are now known as the Mapleson Cylinders and later issued on LP. He first came to San Francisco as a conductor of the Metropolitan Opera during its 1906 tour and was present when the city was devastated by earthquake, in 1913 he conducted the Berlin Philharmonics first recording session, in excerpts from Parsifal. He later became director of the San Francisco Symphony, a post he held from 1915 to 1930, receiving praise. Longtime San Francisco violinist David Schneider noted, in his history of the orchestra, Hertz led the San Francisco Symphonys first recordings, for the Victor Talking Machine Company, released from 1925 to 1930. The recordings have been remastered and were issued for the first time on CD by Pristine Classical. Hertz also conducted the orchestra in its first radio broadcasts, beginning in 1926, after 1930, Hertz guest conducted the orchestra, including The Standard Hour radio broadcasts on NBC. Hertz spent much of life in Berkeley, California, but died in San Francisco. Writes Roussel, No one who attended that season would ever forget the visit of its conductor, or the things he did with the orchestra
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Frieda Hempel
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Frieda Hempel was a German soprano singer in operatic and concert work who had an international career in Europe and the United States. Frieda Hempel was born in Leipzig, Germany, and studied first at the Leipzig Conservatory and afterwards at the Stern Conservatory, Berlin and her earliest appearances were in Breslau, singing Violetta, the Queen of the Night and Rosina. She made a debut in Schwerin in 1905, and was engaged there for the two years, singing also Gilda, Leonora and Woglinde. She made such a success that the Kaiser Wilhelm II requested the Schwerin authorities to release her to sing also in Berlin and she made a debut there in 1905 as Frau Fluth. She sang at the Royal Court Opera, Berlin, from 1907 to 1912, in 1912 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, in New York City as Marguerite de Valois in Les Huguenots. She sang regularly in New York thereafter into the 1920s and she was the first to sing the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier in New York and in Berlin, and she also sang the role in London in 1913. Her La fille du régiment was presented there in 1917, Hempel had a very wide dramatic range, from Rosina or Queen of the Night to Wagners Eva and Webers Euryanthe. After 1919 she devoted herself to recitals, and left the Metropolitan Opera House somewhat abruptly. However she then made a career on the concert platform, excelling in the performance of lieder of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf, in Mozart concert arias. She became famous for recitals in which she appeared in costume as the famous nineteenth-century soprano Jenny Lind and she died in Berlin in 1955. Hempel began making records in Germany for Odeon Records in 1906 and later recorded for the Gramophone Company in England as well as the Victor Talking Machine Company, most are by the acoustic process. Her vocal students include the American voice teacher and Bel canto scholar Cornelius L. Reid, a. Eaglefield-Hull, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians. G. Kobbé, The Complete Opera Book, H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera. M. Scott, The Record of Singing Volume I
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Margarethe Arndt-Ober
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Margarethe Arndt-Ober was a German opera singer who had an active international career during the first half of the twentieth century. A highly skilled contralto, Ober enjoyed a long and fruitful association with the Berlin State Opera from 1907 to 1944. She also was notably a principal singer at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City between 1913 and 1917, a native of Berlin, Margarethe Ober studied singing in Berlin with Benno Stolzenberg and Arthur Arndt, the latter of whom she eventually married in 1910. Ober made her opera debut as Azucena in Giuseppe Verdis Il trovatore at the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt in 1906. After a short stint at the opera in Stettin, she became a singer with the Berlin State Opera in 1907. In 1908 she had her first major success in Berlin singing Amneris in Verdis Aida with Enrico Caruso as Radames and that same year she portrayed the title role in the German premiere of Jules Massenets Thérèse. In April 1910 she sang in the premiere of Arthur Nevins Poia. In 1913 she portrayed Eboli in the Berlin premiere of Verdis Don Carlos, in 1913 Ober joined the roster of principal singers at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, singing with the company for four seasons. She made her debut with the company on November 21,1913 and her final and 182nd performance at the Met was as Marina in Modest Mussorgskys Boris Godunov on April 27,1917. On May 8,1917, Ober performed in a concert for the composer Eugen Haile. Shortly after the opera had resumed, Ober dramatically fainted on stage within full view of the audience, Ober sued for $50,000 for breach of contract, maintaining she was simply an artist. She lost her case, but nevertheless was detained in America until the end of the war, Ober returned to Germany in 1919 and resumed her career at the Berlin State Opera until her retirement from the stage in 1944. Outside of Berlin, Ober was a performer at the Zoppot Festival. She also made appearances in Spain, the Netherlands, and Norway and her voice is preserved on a number of recordings made on the HMV, Odeon, Parlophon, Pathé, and Victor labels
32.
Anna Case
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Anna Case was an American soprano. She recorded with Thomas Alva Edison, who used her voice extensively in tone tests of whether a live audience could tell the difference between the singer and a recording. In addition to recordings for Edison Records on both phonograph cylinder and Diamond Disc, Case recorded for Victor and Columbia Records, and made film for Vitaphone. She was born on October 29,1888, in Clinton and she sang in the American premiere of Boris Godunov in 1913 at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1919 Case appeared in the silent drama film The Hidden Truth and she also appeared in documentaries about sound recording. In 1930, before retiring in the year, she recorded Just Awearyin for You by Frank Lebby Stanton. In 1931, she married ITT Corporation executive Clarence Mackay, upon her death on January 7,1984, in New York City, she bequeathed her 167. 97-carat Colombian emerald ring and Boucheron necklace to the Smithsonian Institution. Anna Case papers, 1912-1969 Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
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Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi
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The Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi is an opera house located in Trieste, Italy and named after the composer Giuseppe Verdi. Initially, the Nuovo had 1,400 seats, in 1821, it became known as the Teatro Grande. By the end of the 18th century, the need for a new theatre in Trieste became evident and its main theatre, the Teatro di San Pietro, had become increasingly inadequate and finally closed its doors in 1800. Gian Antonio Selva, the architect of the La Fenice in Venice, was engaged, the Nuovo became a mixture of La Fenice on the inside and La Scala on the exterior. A further name change followed in 1861 due to a change from private to public ownership, thus it became the Teatro Comunale and existed as such throughout the latter years of the 19th century. Within hours of his death in January 1901, the theatre was again renamed. It was extensively restored between 1992 and 1997 and re-opened with about 1,300 seats and with a Viva Verdi concert which included excerpts from many of the composers operas. ISBN 0-8108-5359-0 Plantamura, Carol, The Opera Lovers Guide to Europe, New York, ISBN 0-8065-1842-1 Teatro Verdis official website with photographs
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Teatro Regio (Turin)
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The Teatro Regio is a prominent opera house and opera company in Turin, Italy. Its season runs from October to June with the presentation of eight or nine operas given from five to twelve performances of each, however, the cornerstone was not laid until the reign of Charles Emmanuel III in 1738 after Juvarras death. The work was supervised by Benedetto Alfieri until the theatre was completed, the Teatro Regio was inaugurated on 26 December 1740 with Francesco Feos Arsace. It was a sumptuously built facility, seating 1,500, however, the theatre was closed on royal order in 1792 and it became a warehouse. With the French occupation of Turin during the Napoleonic War the theatre was renamed the Teatro Nazionale and finally, after Napoleons ascent to Emperor, Napoleons fall in 1814 saw the theatre returned to its original name, the Regio. In the following years the house went through several periods of financial crisis. Other theatres were built and presented seasons of opera in Turin, among them was the restored Teatro Carignano in 1824. Even before it burnt down, discussions about whether to rebuild the Regio or create a new theatre preoccupied Turin in the early twentieth century. Two plans were presented and the one selected expanded the capacity to 2,415 by removing the fourth and fifth levels of boxes. Work was completed in 1905 but the theatre closed during the First World War, until February 1936, seasons of opera were presented until fire destroyed all but the facade of the Teatro Regio. It remained closed for thirty-seven years, arturo Toscanini was the conductor of the Turin Opera from 1895 to 1898, during which time several productions of the works of Wagner were given Italian premieres. Following the fire, a competition was launched to find an architect. However, due to the war and the financial situation. Even then, work did not start until September 1967 under architect Carlo Mollino, the new house seats 1,750 and is elliptical in shape with a large orchestra level and 37 boxes around its perimeter. An acoustic shell was added to improve its sound, lynn, Karyl Charna, Italian Opera Houses and Festivals, Lanham, Maryland, The Scarecrow Press, Inc.2005. ISBN 0-8108-5359-0 Plantamura, Carol, The Opera Lovers Guide to Europe, New York, ISBN 0-8065-1842-1 Teatro Regio Torino website Category, Opera world premieres at the Teatro Regio
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Teatro di San Carlo
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The Real Teatro di San Carlo, its original name under the Bourbon monarchy but known today as simply the Teatro di San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is located adjacent to the central Piazza del Plebiscito, and it is the oldest continuously active venue for public opera in the world, opening in 1737, decades before both the Milans La Scala and Venices La Fenice theatres. The opera season runs from late January to May, with the season taking place from April to early June. The house once had a capacity of 3,285. Given its size, structure and antiquity was the model for the theatres in Europe. As was customary, the role of Achilles was played by a woman, Vittoria Tesi, called Moretta, sarro also conducted the orchestra in two ballets as intermezzi, created by Gaetano Grossatesta, with scenes designed by Pietro Righini. The first seasons highlighted the royal preference for numbers. The new opera house was designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano, an architect, and Angelo Carasale. The horseshoe-shaped auditorium is the oldest in the world and it was built at a cost of 75,000 ducats. Including standing room, the theatre could hold over 3,000 people, military movements of infantry and cavalry, battles, and storms at sea can be represented here without falling into the ludicrous. But for opera, itself, the house is too large, although the singers, Signora Isabella Colbran, and the Signori Nozzari, Benedetti, etc. have very strong voices, only their highest and most stentorian tones could be heard. Any kind of tender utterance was lost, much admired for its architecture, its gold decorations, and the sumptuous blue upholstery, the San Carlo was now the biggest opera house in the world. In 1809 Domenico Barbaia was appointed manager of the opera houses in Naples. He soon established a reputation for innovative and dazzling productions, which attracted both the public and leading singers to the opera house, on 13 February 1816 a fire broke out during a dress-rehearsal for a ballet performance and quickly spread to destroy a part of building. On the orders of King Ferdinand IV, another Bourbon monarch and son of Charles III and it was rebuilt as a traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium with 1,444 seats, and a proscenium,33. 5m wide and 30m high. Niccolini embellished in the inner of the bas-relief depicting Time and the Hour, the central frescoed ceiling painting of Apollo presenting to Minerva the greatest poets of the world was painted by Antonio, Giuseppe e Giovanni Cammarano. On 12 January 1817, the theatre was inaugurated with Johann Simon Mayrs Il sogno di Partenope. Stendhal attended the night of the inauguration and wrote, There is nothing in all Europe, I won’t say comparable to this theatre
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Teatro Carlo Felice
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The Teatro Carlo Felice is the principal opera house of Genoa, Italy, used for performances of opera, ballet, orchestral music, and recitals. It is located on the Piazza De Ferrari, the hall is named for Duke Carlo Felice, and dates from 24 December 1824, when the Most Excellent Department of Theatres was established. On 31 January 1825, local architect Carlo Barabino submitted his design for the house which was to be built on the site of the church of San Domenico. The Dominican monks were moved elsewhere without delay or ceremony, the inaugural performance of Bellinis Bianca e Fernando took place on 7 April 1828, even though the structure and decoration were not quite finished. The auditorium accommodated an audience of about 2,500 in five tiers, a gallery above, the acoustics were considered among the best of the time. For nearly forty years from 1853, Verdi spent the winter in Genoa, in 1892, Genoa commemorated the 400th anniversary of Columbus discovery of America and to celebrate the occasion the Carlo Felice was renovated and redecorated at a cost of 420,000 lire. Verdi was approached to compose an opera, but he declined the honour. Alberto Franchettis opera Cristoforo Colombo premiered at the Carlo Felice on 6 October 1892, further damage was sustained on 5 August 1943 when incendiary bombs started a backstage fire which destroyed all scenery and wooden fittings, but did not reach the main auditorium. Unfortunately additional damage was caused by looters who stripped the back of the theatre of every possible scrap of metal they could find. Finally, an air raid in September 1944 caused the destruction of the front of the theatre leaving virtually only the outside walls, what had been the most richly beautiful of opera houses had become a skeleton of bare walls and roofless porticos. Reconstruction plans began immediately after the wars close, the first design by Paolo Antonio Chessa was rejected, the second by Carlo Scarpa was approved in 1977 but brought to a halt by his untimely death. Aldo Rossi ultimately provided todays design, in portions of the original facade have been recreated. The hall officially reopened in June 1991, with a main hall holding up to 2,000 seats and a smaller auditorium holding up to 200 seats
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Vanni Marcoux
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Jean-Émile Diogène Marcoux was a French operatic bass-baritone, known professionally as Vanni Marcoux. He was particularly associated with the French and Italian repertories and his huge repertoire included an estimated 240 roles and he won renown as one of the most memorable singing-actors of the 20th century. Jean-Émile Diogène Marcoux was born to a French father and an Italian mother in Turin and his mother gave him the nickname Vanni, short for Giovanni, the Italian equivalent of Jean. After completing law studies, he decided to devote himself to music and he studied with Collini at the music conservatory in his hometown. He made his debut in 1894, at the age of 17, as Sparafucile in Verdis Rigoletto. After further studies in Paris with Frédéric Boyer, he made his first stage appearance in France, at Bayonne, as Frère Laurent in Gounods Roméo et Juliette, in 1899. Vanni Marcoux made his Paris Opéra debut in 1908 as Méphisto in Gounods Faust, the same year,1910, he sang for the first time Massenets Don Quichotte at the Gaieté Lyrique in Paris, a part that would soon become his signature role. Word of his many successes crossed the Atlantic, and he was invited to join the Boston Opera Company, where he made his debut in 1912 as Golaud in Debussys Pelléas et Mélisande. This was followed by his debut at the Chicago Grand Opera Company in 1913, as the four villains in Offenbachs The Tales of Hoffmann, which is considered one of his greatest histrionic achievements. His success in America was partly due to the soprano Mary Garden, in October 1914, in the early stages of World War I, it was erroneously reported in the press that he had been killed on active service as a member of the French Army. In 1919, Vanni Marcoux appeared at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, among his more notable interpretations were Philippe II in Don Carlos, Rafaele in The Jewels of the Madonna, Iago in Otello, and the title character in Gianni Schicchi. Vanni Marcoux began teaching at the Paris Conservatory in 1938 and he retired from the stage in 1948 and became director of the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. He held that post from 1948 to 1951, Vanni Marcouxs career was impressive for its longevity and the remarkably wide variety of operatic roles which it embraced. He possessed a clear, although not especially large voice, with a characteristic vibrato and his French diction was praised for its clarity, and he was also acclaimed by music critics for the quality of his musicianship and his outstanding dramatic intelligence. He married Madeleine Morlay, an actress, in 1914 and his wife was portraited by Antonio de La Gandara and one of the two works painted is exhibited in the Beauvais Museum and on display on the website dedicated to La Gandara. Le Miracle des loups LAiglon D. Hamilton, The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia, ISBN 0-671-61732-X Roland Mancini and Jean-Jacques Rouveroux, Guide de l’opéra, Les indispensables de la musique
