1.
Die Fledermaus (The Tick)
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The Tick is a fictional character created by cartoonist Ben Edlund in 1986 as a newsletter mascot for the New England Comics chain of Boston area comic stores. He is an absurdist spoof of comic book superheroes, after its creation, the character spun off into an independent comic book series in 1988, and gained mainstream popularity through an animated TV series on Fox in 1994. A short-lived live-action TV series, video game, and various merchandise have also based on the character. IGNs list of the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time ranked The Tick as #57, in 1986, 18-year-old cartoonist Ben Edlund created The Tick as a mascot for a newsletter of the Norwood, Massachusetts store New England Comics where he was a customer. Edlund expanded this into stories, beginning with the three-page tale The Tick in New England Comics Newsletter #14–15, the Ticks sidekick, Arthur, was introduced in The Tick #4. Spin-offs followed featuring characters such as Paul the Samurai, Man-Eating Cow, Edlund continued to write and illustrate these projects initially through his years as an undergraduate film student at the Massachusetts College of Art. The Chainsaw Vigilante spin-off, which was never completed, was written, other series, such as the second Paul the Samurai series and the Man-Eating Cow series, were written by North Carolina writer Clay Griffith. In 1994, the Fox network introduced The Tick as a Saturday morning cartoon series, lasting three seasons, the animated series would provide The Ticks greatest mainstream fame. Townsend Coleman voiced the character and Micky Dolenz played his sidekick Arthur. Rob Paulsen took over the Arthur role during seasons 2 and 3, reruns on Comedy Central helped make the series a cult hit with adults. The 1997 book The Tick, Mighty Blue Justice, by Greg Hyland was published as a tie-in with the animated series. In 2001, Fox introduced a live-action TV series, written, the series starred Patrick Warburton as The Tick, David Burke as Arthur, Nestor Carbonell as Batmanuel, and Liz Vassey as Captain Liberty. The series was short-lived, however, and it only lasted nine episodes, nevertheless, it was well-praised and revered by cast and crew. A DVD release of the series was released on September 30,2003. In June 2005, the Toon Disney network began airing The Tick animated series, the series also occasionally aired on ABC Family as part of the Jetix cartoon block. The following year, Buena Vista Home Entertainment released the first season of The Tick animated series on DVD, the second season was released on August 7,2007, however, both collections were missing an episode for different reasons. In July 2016, Amazon announced that a new live-action The Tick series, starring Peter Serafinowicz and directed by Wally Pfister, the pilot aired on August 19,2016. The pilot was picked up as a series and is now in development, the Tick seems to have no memory of his life before being The Tick, and indeed not much memory of anything, more than likely due to frequent head injuries
Die Fledermaus (The Tick)
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The Tick: Comic Con Extravaganza #1
2.
Der Karneval in Rom
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Der Karneval in Rom —also known as Karneval in Rom— is an operetta in three acts composed by Johann Strauss II to a libretto by Josef Braun, Richard Genée and Maximilian Steiner. It was Strauss second operetta and based on Victorien Sardous 1861 comedy Piccolino, the work premiered on 1 March 1873 at the Theater an der Wien. Notes Sources Strauss II, J. Famous Overtures CD, traubner, Richard Operetta, A Theatrical History, Routledge
Der Karneval in Rom
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Johann Strauss II
3.
Cagliostro in Wien
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Cagliostro in Wien is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II to a libretto by F. Zell and Richard Genée. It premiered on 27 February 1875 at the Theater an der Wien, the premiere was highly successful, in no small part due to the audience favourite Alexander Girardi as Blasoni. Another notable performer at the premiere was Marie Geistinger who had created the role of Rosalinde in Strausss Die Fledermaus, however, weaknesses in the libretto and—by Strausss standards—the pallid music, meant the work could not garner the level of long-term public support of the composers other works. These shortcomings were corrected in a version with a libretto by Gustav Quedenfeldt. 369 Cagliostro-Walzer, Op.370, waltz Hoch Österreich, Op.371, march Bitte schön. Op.372, French polka Auf der Jagd, Op.373, quick polka Licht und Schatten, Op.374 polka Erich Wolfgang Korngold wrote an arrangement of the work, first performed on 13 April 1927 in Vienna. Notes Sources Amadeus Almanac, accessed 11 November 2008 Reclams Operettenführer, Anton Würz, Stuttgart 1962 Johann Strauss Jun
Cagliostro in Wien
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Johann Strauss II
Cagliostro in Wien
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Giuseppe Balsamo (
Cagliostro)
4.
Der lustige Krieg
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Der lustige Krieg is a three-act operetta composed by Johann Strauss II. The work was first performed on 25 November 1881 at the Theater an der Wien and its libretto was by F Zell and Richard Genée. The operetta was well received at its premiere, and was performed 69 times during its first run, place, The garrisoned Mediterranean city of Massa. Time, First part of the 18th century It concerns a dispute between two states, the war between them is played out as a game of love between Colonel Umberto Spinola, the commander-in-chief of the Genoese army, and the widowed Countess Violetta. Despite the name of the operetta, there is no fighting or bloodshed in the war
Der lustige Krieg
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Johann Strauss II
5.
Eine Nacht in Venedig
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Eine Nacht in Venedig is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II. Its libretto was by F. Zell and Richard Genée based on Le Château Trompette by Eugène Cormon, the farcical, romantic story involves several cases of mistaken identity. The piece premiered in 1883 in Berlin and then Vienna and it became one of Strausss three most famous stage works and has been seen in New York, London and elsewhere, and has been adapted for film. The piece premiered in Berlin on 3 October 1883 in the Neues Friedrich Wilhelmstadisches Theater, the operetta became established as one of Strausss three most recognisable stage works alongside Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron. The work played at Dalys Theatre in 1884 and 1900 on Broadway in New York, ohio Light Opera performed the work in 1981,1991,1999 and 2009, recording it in 2000. In 1934 the work was adapted as a German operetta film, A Night in Venice, a Hungarian version of the film version was made simultaneously. It is an evening in eighteenth-century Venice, in a square on the Grand Canal, with a view across to the Ducal Palace and the Isle of San Giorgio, people stroll around as the sun goes down, while the tradeswomen call out their wares. The young Neapolitan macaroni cook Pappacoda observes that, for all the splendours of the city, macaroni as long as the Grand Canal, with as much cheese as there is sand in the Lido – that is what Pappacoda offers. The young man is approached by Enrico, a naval officer, when he is told that he is at a sitting of the Senate, Enrico sees it as an opportunity for a few private minutes with the Senators young wife Barbara. However, she also is out, so Enrico slips Pappacoda a coin to give Barbara a letter with the message that Enrico will be ready for her at nine oclock that evening. As the people watch, a boat arrives carrying Annina, a fisher-girl, Pappacoda greets her, hinting that what has really brought her hither is the imminent arrival of the Duke of Urbino, and more particularly his barber Caramello, Anninas sweetheart. Caramello is a monster, a neer-do-well, and a conceited blockhead into the bargain, stupidity is no hindrance to love, Pappacoda retorts, sampling an oyster. After all, Im passionately in love with Ciboletta, Signora Delacquas pretty cook – a girl as stupid as this oyster, when Barbara Delacqua returns home, Pappacoda gives her the message from Enrico and receives another tip for his troubles. Annina departs with Barbara, leaving Pappacoda to greet his own girlfriend and she is wondering when they are going to get married, and he promises that they will do so just as soon as he gets a position in service. The senators return from a session, discussing the banquet that the Duke of Urbino is to give today when he arrives for his annual Carnival-time visit to Venice. The Dukes arrival is signalled by the appearance of a gondola carrying his personal barber, Caramello and he proceeds to show off his close acquaintance with the Duke and rounds things off with an agile tarantella for good measure. He quickly spots Annina, but she is not too pleased that he has ignored her for the past year. In pursuit of amorous adventures on his masters behalf Caramello has learned with interest from Pappacoda that a gondolier is due to take Barbara Delacqua to Murano at 9 p. m
Eine Nacht in Venedig
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Johann Strauss II
6.
The Gypsy Baron
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The Gypsy Baron is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II which premiered at the Theater an der Wien on 24 October 1885. Its libretto was by the author Ignaz Schnitzer and in turn was based on Sáffi by Mór Jókai, during the composers lifetime, the operetta enjoyed great success, second only to the popularity of Die Fledermaus. The scoring and the nature of Strausss music have led many music critics to consider this work a comic opera or a lyric opera. Its genesis was rather swift and smooth, as Strauss was no stranger to the Hungarian influences apparent in the music score, many of his earlier works also bore many similar themes, such as the polka Éljen a Magyar. Originally, Strauss and Schnitzer intended the operetta as an opera but further revisions were made, Strauss work on the operetta was interrupted in autumn 1883 due to nicotine poisoning and fainting fits and he was to recuperate in Franzensbad. Strauss work on the act 3 of the work was interrupted when his third wife, Adele Strauss, was taken ill. Strauss music for The Gypsy Baron is regularly performed today, the orchestral pieces that he furnished from the work were also well-recognised, among them, the sparkling Schatz-Walzer, op. 418, as well as the polkas Brautschau, op, place, Hungary Time, Late 18th century A swampy riverside region near the town of Temeşvar in the Temeşvar Province The distant scene is dominated by a derelict castle. In the foreground is a deserted village with only one reasonably prosperous-looking house. In a particularly disreputable hut there lives an old woman named Czipra. The boatmen can be heard singing at their work, Ottokár, son of Mirabella who is governess to Arsena is digging for treasure which he fondly believes to be buried somewhere around. This is his daily routine, and the more he looks without success, Czipra looks out of her window and makes fun of his efforts. She has been watching him for weeks and has a low opinion of his time on this activity while the other Gypsies are out doing an honest days work. She tells him if he continues with this fruitless quest, he will end up penniless and never marry, as he hopes. Sándor Barinkay, son of the owner of the castle, arrives accompanied by Conte Carnero, Commissioner for Oaths. The Commissioner suggests they get on with the job and call on Czipra as a witness, in the meantime he tells Barinkay of the beautiful Arsena. To pass time Czipra tells their fortunes and reveals to Sándor Barinkay that there is happiness and he will marry a faithful wife who will, in a dream, discover where the treasure is hidden. Carnero is also told that he will recover a treasure that he has lost, Zsupán arrives and tells everyone that he is a highly successful pig-breeder adding that he lives for sausages and wine and has little time for art
The Gypsy Baron
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Johann Strauss II
7.
Simplicius (operetta)
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Simplicius is an operetta by Johann Strauss II. The libretto for this work was furnished by Victor Léon who was one of Viennas promising talents of that era, the operetta received its premiere at the Theater an der Wien on 17 December 1887 and was nearly marred by a false fire alert in the theatre. The audience of the first night clearly remembered the theatre tragedy of the Ringtheater inferno in Vienna six years earlier and this waltz song was to later become the first waltz theme of his popular Donauweibchen, Op.427. This operetta is largely forgotten today, although its music is performed at length. Time, In the final years of the Thirty Years War, overview, When Wendelin von Grübben tells his younger brother Bruno that they both love the same woman, Bruno abandons the Catholic faith, joins the heretics and is killed in battle by Wendelin. Full of remorse, Wendelin sends his own son and wife to a house, despite her having just borne Simplicius. Wendelin decides not to himself and Simplicius but to retreat into the forest with his son. Her will declares that the Grübben family fortune can only be inherited with the betrothal of a Grübben, otherwise the entire estate goes to the Church. Arnim leaves the house, and with Wendelin and Simplicius missing, it is eventually assumed that the family has died out. In a dense wood in the foothills of the Sudeten Mountains The Hermit, Wendelin von Grübben, the sound of trumpets can be heard as war rages in the distance. Wendelins meditation is interrupted by the appearance of Melchior, an astrologer and he cannot prove that there are no remaining male descendants of the Grübben family, but he claims that astrologically speaking there is no evidence of any living descendants. In order to be left in peace, Wendelin hands over to Melchior the farewell letter that he wrote when initially planning to kill himself and their exchanges are interrupted by an agitated Simplicius who has seen iron men in the woods and who believes them to be devils. Several soldiers who have lost their way then arrive and assuming the wild and unkempt Simplicius to be a kidnap victim, Wendelin remains behind, confused and broken. In a camp at Olmütz While handing out double rations with her daughter Tilly to the troops before battle, for the past twenty years, she has suspected in every stranger like Melchior, her long lost husband. Meanwhile, Simplicius has been taken up by General von Vliessens entourage, seemingly incapable of comprehending the finer arts of war, he is constantly rebuked by the Sergeant-major. Tilly takes him under her wing, determined to make a soldier out of him. With the expected arrival of a Baron von Grübben now imminent, Hildegarde unsuccessfully pleads with her father not to be made to marry a stranger. Arnim, now a student in Prague and in love with Hildegarde, has followed her to the camp where Simplicius takes him to be an enemy, in order to win Hildegarde over Arnim drops his studies and serves under the General
Simplicius (operetta)
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Johann Strauss II
8.
Waldmeister
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Waldmeister is an operetta written by Johann Strauss II. It was first performed on 4 December 1895 at the Theater an der Wien
Waldmeister
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Johann Strauss II
9.
Wiener Blut (operetta)
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Wiener Blut is an operetta named after the Wiener Blut waltz, supposedly with music by the composer Johann Strauss the Younger, who did not live to witness the première. Strauss did not specifically compose any music for this operetta, although many of his compositions were incorporated for the work. He took no part in the musical arrangement at its conception nor any production work leading up to its première. He was content to delegate tasks to Adolf Müller Jr. as he himself was busy with his ballet. However, Müller did not confine himself to the music of Johann Jr. the new operetta premiéred at the Carltheater on 26 October 1899, almost five months after Strauss demise. Franz Jauner staged the costly project, Jauner anticipated great success at its premiére but was dejected when the work only survived 30 consecutive performances before making way for Sidney Jones critically acclaimed operetta The Geisha. On 23 February 1900, Jauner shot himself at his desk at the Carltheater after his financial gamble with Wiener Blut failed, after five years, however, the famed Theater an der Wien mounted a production of the operetta. With a slightly different libretto and musical arrangement, it caught the eye and has since retained its popularity on stages around the world. In 2007 English Touring Opera performed a new production of Wiener Blut at venues throughout the United Kingdom. In 1942 the operetta was adapted into the film Vienna Blood, notes Sources Mailer, Franz, Josef Strauss, Genius Against His Will, Pergamon Press,1985 Based on original text by Peter Kemp, The Johann Strauss Society of Great Britain
Wiener Blut (operetta)
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Johann Strauss II
10.
Operetta
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Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. By this time, the part of the genre name had become misleading. With this new connotation, opéra comique had dominated the French operatic stage since the decline of tragédie lyrique, most researchers acknowledge that the credit for creating the operetta form should go to Hervé, a singer, composer, librettist, conductor, and scene painter. In 1842 he wrote the little opérette, LOurs et le pacha, based on the vaudeville show by Scribe. In 1848, Hervé made his first notable appearance on the Parisian stage, with Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança, hervés most famous works are the Gounod-parody Le Petit Faust and Mamzelle Nitouche. Jacques Offenbach further developed and popularized operetta, giving it its enormous vogue during the Second Empire, Offenbachs earliest one-act pieces included Les deux aveugles, Le violoneux and Ba-ta-clan, and his first full-length operetta success was Orphée aux enfers. Offenbachs tradition was carried on by Robert Planquette, André Messager. What characterizes Offenbachs operettas is both the way they portray life, and the extremely frivolous way this is done. The character was modeled after Offenbachs female star Hortense Schneider. Considering how Zolas Nana describes an Offenbach-style operetta performance in Paris, it is not surprising that the mostly male, upper-class audiences in other cities like Vienna and Berlin longed to see these shows in their home towns as well, which inspired worldwide performance of Offenbachs works. The highly erotic way Offenbachs operettas were originally played, with stars like Hortense Schneider created a reaction from certain parts of the general public. Operetta was considered an art form. Indeed, together with its grotesque qualities, frivolity is one of the elements of authentic operetta à la Offenbach. It was only later, when audiences widened and became more middle and lower class, the most significant composer of operetta in the German language was the Austrian Johann Strauss II. His first operetta was Indigo und die vierzig Räuber and his third operetta, Die Fledermaus, became the most performed operetta in the world, and remains his most popular stage work. Its libretto was based on a written by Offenbachs librettists. In all, Strauss wrote 16 operettas and one opera, most with great success when first premiered, many of his lesser operettas are now largely forgotten, since his later librettists were less talented and he often composed independently of the plot. Strausss operettas, waltzes, polkas, and marches often have a strongly Viennese style, the Theater an der Wien never failed to draw huge crowds when his stage works were first performed
Operetta
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The audience at the
Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, the birthplace of Offenbach's operettas (1860)
Operetta
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Playbill for a revival of
Orphée aux enfers
Operetta
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Johann Strauss II
Operetta
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Paul Lincke, father of the Berlin operetta
11.
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
Libretto
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Cover of a 1921 libretto for Giordano's
Andrea Chénier
Libretto
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The composer of
Cavalleria rusticana,
Pietro Mascagni, flanked by his librettists,
Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and
Guido Menasci.
Libretto
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Pages from an 1859 libretto for
Ernani, with the original Italian lyrics, English translation and musical notation for one of the arias.
Libretto
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Henry Purcell (1659–1695) whose operas were written to English libretti.
12.
Farce
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In theatre, a farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. Farce is also characterized by humor, the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense. Farces have been written for the stage and film, furthermore, a farce is also often set in one particular location, where all events occur. M. C. P. C. David Croft & Jeremy Lloyd, Allo Allo, ken Friedman, Claptrap Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen, Chance in a Million Miles Tredinnick, Laugh. Alan Ayckbourn, A Small Family Business Miles Tredinnick, It’s Now Or Never, tom Kempinski, Sex Please, Were Italian. Ray Cooney, Funny Money Robin Hawdon, Perfect Wedding Steven Moffat, Coupling Miles Tredinnick, La Farce de maître Pierre Pathelin The Liar Molière, Tartuffe Molière, The Miser Labiche, La Cagnotte and other plays. These plays are performed as comic relief during the long, serious Noh plays, following stage shows of Umer Shareef are extremely popular. Archer Chowder The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack Scooby-Doo, IMDB list of film and television farces Farce films at Allmovie
Farce
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Petrov-Vodkin's painting of a theatre audience enjoying a farce.
13.
Roderich Benedix
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Julius Roderich Benedix was a German dramatist and librettist, born in Leipzig, where he was educated there at Thomasschule. He joined the stage in 1831, his first engagement being with the company of H. E. Bethmann in Dessau, Köthen, Bernburg. Subsequently he was tenor in several theatres in Westphalia and on the Rhine, and became manager of the theatre at Wesel, where he produced a comedy, Das bemooste Haupt, which met with great success. After an engagement in Cologne, he managed the new theatre at Elberfeld, in 1855 he was appointed intendant of the municipal theatre in Frankfurt-on-Main, but retired in 1861, and died in Leipzig in 1873. The chief characteristics of his farces are a plot and bright, easy. Benedixs Gesammelte dramatische Werke appeared in 27 vols, a selection under the title Volkstheater in 20 vols. and a collection of smaller comedies as Haustheater in 2 vols. See Benedixs autobiography in the Gartenlaube for 1871 and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Benedix, Julius Roderich. Works by Roderich Benedix at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Roderich Benedix at Internet Archive
Roderich Benedix
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Roderich Benedix
14.
Henri Meilhac
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Henri Meilhac was a French dramatist and opera librettist. Meilhac was born in the 1st arrondissement of Paris in 1830, as a young man, he began writing fanciful articles for Parisian newspapers and comédies en vaudevilles, in a vivacious boulevardier spirit which brought him to the forefront. About 1860, he met Ludovic Halévy, and their collaboration for the stage lasted twenty years and their most famous collaboration is the libretto for Georges Bizets Carmen. However, Meilhacs work is most closely tied to the music of Jacques Offenbach, for whom he wrote over a dozen librettos, the most successful collaborations with Offenbach are La belle Hélène, Barbe-bleue, La Vie parisienne, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, and La Périchole. Other librettos by Meilhac include Jules Massenets Manon, Hervés Mamzelle Nitouche, and Rip and their vaudeville play Le réveillon was the basis of the operetta Die Fledermaus. In 1888 he was elected to the Académie française and he died in Paris in 1897. Works by or about Henri Meilhac at Internet Archive
Henri Meilhac
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Henri Meilhac.
15.
Jacques Offenbach
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Jacques Offenbach was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and he was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were revived during the 20th century. The Tales of Hoffman remains part of the opera repertory. Born in Cologne, the son of a cantor, Offenbach showed early musical talent. At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but found academic study unfulfilling, from 1835 to 1855 he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition, however, was to compose pieces for the musical theatre. Finding the management of Paris Opéra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, there he presented a series of his own small-scale pieces, many of which became popular. In 1858, Offenbach produced his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers, during the 1860s, he produced at least 18 full-length operettas, as well as more one-act pieces. His works from this period included La belle Hélène, La Vie parisienne, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Offenbach became associated with the Second French Empire of Napoleon III, the emperor and his court were genially satirised in many of Offenbachs operettas. Napoleon III personally granted him French citizenship and the Légion dHonneur, with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Offenbach found himself out of favour in Paris because of his imperial connections and his German birth. He remained successful in Vienna and London, however and he re-established himself in Paris during the 1870s, with revivals of some of his earlier favourites and a series of new works, and undertook a popular U. S. tour. In his last years he strove to finish The Tales of Hoffmann, but died before the premiere of the opera, Offenbach was born Jacob or Jakob Offenbach to a Jewish family, in the German city of Cologne, which was then a part of Prussia. His birthplace in the Großen Griechenmarkt was a distance from the square that is now named after him. He was the son and the seventh of ten children of Isaac Juda Offenbach né Eberst and his wife Marianne. Isaac, who came from a family, had abandoned his original trade as a bookbinder and earned an itinerant living as a cantor in synagogues. He was generally known as der Offenbacher, after his native town, Offenbach am Main, in 1816 he settled in Cologne, where he became established as a teacher, giving lessons in singing, violin, flute and guitar, and composing both religious and secular music. When Jacob was six years old, his father taught him to play the violin, within two years the boy was composing songs and dances, and at the age of nine he took up the cello
Jacques Offenbach
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Offenbach in the 1860s
Jacques Offenbach
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Offenbach in the 1840s
Jacques Offenbach
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Early influences:
Luigi Cherubini and
Fromental Halévy (top);
Louis-Pierre Norblin and
Friedrich von Flotow (below)
Jacques Offenbach
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Offenbach as a young cello virtuoso, drawing by Alexandre Laemlein from 1850
16.
So This Is Paris (1926 film)
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So This is Paris is a 1926 American silent comedy film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It is based on the 1872 stage play Le Reveillon by Henri Meilhac and it stars Monte Blue and Patsy Ruth Miller. The film is preserved in many archival holdings including the Library of Congress, Paul Giraud is happily married to Suzanna, and together they live in a quiet neighborhood. As Suzanna notices that their new neighbors are expressive dancers with revealing outfits, as Paul knocks on his neighbors door, he finds out that the woman is an old flame, Georgette Lalle. They reunite happily, and Georgette even attempts to kiss Paul, Paul does not answer Georgettes displays of affection, and instead introduces himself to Maurice. Back at home, Paul lies about his meeting with the Lalles, Paul overhears their flirtatious conversation, but pretends to be asleep. Somewhat later, Paul is on his way for a meeting with Georgette. After insulting the officer, Paul is charged with three days in prison, Suzanna, under the impression that Paul was speeding due to a patient crisis, does not understand why Paul does not gather witnesses to prove that he was speeding because of an emergency. She decides to call up the patient on the phone herself, Paul goes out to celebrate his death at the Artists Ball with Georgette. As he dresses up for an out, he convinces Suzanna that he is heading to jail to serve his three-day sentence. While Paul and Georgette are enjoying themselves at a wild party and they are caught by a detective, who is at the mansion to arrest Paul. Fearing a scandal, Suzanna convinces Maurice to pose as her husband, meanwhile, she overhears through the radio that Paul and Georgette are the winners of a Charleston contest at the Artists Ball. She dresses up and comes over to confront her drunken husband, the comedy in this film had, up to that time, kept the audience in constant explosions of laughter, but the startling dissolving scenic effects and varied shots elicited a hearty round of applause. [So This Is Paris at the Internet Movie Database So This Is Paris at the TCM Movie Database So This Is Paris at AllMovie lobby poster
So This Is Paris (1926 film)
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theatrical release poster
17.
Ernst Lubitsch
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Ernst Lubitsch was a German American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywoods most elegant and sophisticated director, as his prestige grew, in 1946, he received an Honorary Academy Award for his distinguished contributions to the art of the motion picture. Ernst Lubitsch was born on January 29,1892 in Berlin, Germany, the son of Anna and Simon Lubitsch and his family was Ashkenazi Jewish, his father born in Grodno in the Russian Empire and his mother from Wriezen, outside Berlin. He turned his back on his fathers tailoring business to enter the theater, in 1913, Lubitsch made his film debut as an actor in The Ideal Wife. He gradually abandoned acting to concentrate on directing and he appeared in approximately thirty films as an actor between 1912 and 1920. His last film appearance as an actor was in the 1920 drama Sumurun, opposite Pola Negri and Paul Wegener, in 1918, he made his mark as a serious director with Die Augen der Mumie Ma, starring Pola Negri. Lubitsch alternated between escapist comedies and large-scale historical dramas, enjoying international success with both. His reputation as a master of world cinema reached a new peak after the release of his spectacles Madame Du Barry. Both of these films found American distributorship by early 1921 and they, along with Lubitschs Carmen were selected by The New York Times on its list of the 15 most important movies of 1921. With glowing reviews under his belt, and American money flowing his way, Lubitsch formed his own production company, however, with World War I still fresh, and with a slew of German New Wave releases encroaching on American movie workers livelihoods, Lubitsch was not gladly received. He cut his trip short after little more than three weeks and returned to Germany, but he had already seen enough of the American film industry to know that its resources far outstripped the spartan German companies. Lubitsch finally left Germany for Hollywood in 1922, contracted as a director by Mary Pickford, settling in America, Lubitsch established his reputation for sophisticated comedy with such stylish films as The Marriage Circle, Lady Windermeres Fan, and So This Is Paris. But his films were only marginally profitable for Warner Brothers, and Lubitschs contract was dissolved by mutual consent, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His first film for MGM, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, was well regarded, the Patriot, produced by Paramount, earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Directing. Lubitsch seized upon the advent of talkies to direct musicals, with his first sound film, The Love Parade, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, Lubitsch hit his stride as a maker of worldly musical comedies. The Love Parade, Monte Carlo, and The Smiling Lieutenant were hailed by critics as masterpieces of the emerging musical genre. Lubitsch served on the faculty of the University of Southern California for a time and his next film was a romantic comedy, written with Samson Raphaelson, Trouble in Paradise. Later described as amoral by critic David Thomson, the cynical comedy was popular both with critics and with audiences
Ernst Lubitsch
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Ernst Lubitsch, c. 1922
Ernst Lubitsch
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Lubitsch, c. 1920
Ernst Lubitsch
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Lubitsch and his wife, Helene Kraus
Ernst Lubitsch
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Lubitsch in
The Merry Widow, 1934
18.
Maximilian Steiner
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Maximilian Steiner was an Austrian actor and theater manager. Steiner was manager of Viennas Theater an der Wien from 1869 to 1875 with Marie Geistinger, a Viennese actress, during this period, he is said to have discovered Johann Strauss, and encouraged Jacques Offenbach to drop a lucrative conducting career to write his first operetta. Steiner gradually phased out spoken-word dramas from the Theater program, contributing to the Viennese opera boom, Steiner was born in Ofen, near Budapest in Hungary, and died in Baden, Lower Austria. He had two sons, Franz Steiner, who took over his function in 1880 and remained until 1884, and Gabor Steiner and he was grandfather of Max Steiner, a Hollywood film composer
Maximilian Steiner
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Cartoon of Maximilian Steiner (bottom left) with his boss Friedrich Strampfer (top). By
Karel Klíč, 1869.
19.
Theater an der Wien
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The Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre in Vienna located on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district. Completed in 1801, the theatre has hosted the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, since 2006, it has served primarily as an opera house, hosting its own company. Although Wien is German for Vienna, the Wien in the name of the theatre is actually the name of the Wien River, which flowed by the theatre site. In modern times, the river has been covered over in this location and the riverbed now houses the Naschmarkt. The theatre is operated in cooperation with Vereinigte Bühnen Wien which also operates the Raimund Theater, the theatre was the brainchild of the Viennese theatrical impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, who is best known as Mozarts librettist and collaborator on the opera The Magic Flute. Schikaneders troupe had already been performing for several years in Vienna in the smaller Theater auf der Wieden. As the troupes performances often emphasized spectacle and scenery, the librettist felt ready to move to a larger and better equipped venue. He had already granted an imperial licence to build a new theatre in 1786. The building was designed by the architect Franz Jäger in Empire style, the theatre has been described as the most lavishly equipped and one of the largest theatres of its age. The theatre opened on 13 June 1801 with a written by Schikaneder followed by a performance of the opera Alexander by Franz Teyber. The new theatre proved to be a sensation, adolf Bäurle, a local critic, wrote if Schikaneder and Zitterbarth had had the idea. To charge admission simply for looking at the glories of their Theater an der Wien, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung called it the most comfortable and satisfactory in the whole of Germany. In 1807 the theatre was acquired by a group of nobles that included Count Ferdinand Palffy von Erdöd. He is accompanied by the Three Boys, characters in the same opera, in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, the theatre experienced a golden age during the flourishing of Viennese operetta, as referenced in the list below. From 1945 to 1955, it was one of the homes of the Vienna State Opera. However, in 1955, the theatre was closed for safety reasons and it languished unused for several years, and by the early 1960s, the threat had emerged that it would be converted to a parking garage. Fortunately, in 1962 the theatre found a new and successful role for itself as a venue for musical theatre. Many English-language musicals had their German premieres there, the musical Cats directed and choreographed by Gillian Lynne played successfully for seven years
Theater an der Wien
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The theatre
Theater an der Wien
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Theater an der Wien, 1815
Theater an der Wien
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Theater an der Wien inside
Theater an der Wien
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The Theater an der Wien during the period it emphasized Broadway musicals. The Broadway-style marquee was removed in 2005.
20.
Alhambra Theatre
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The Alhambra was a popular theatre and music hall located on the east side of Leicester Square, in the West End of London. It was built originally as The Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts opening on 18 March 1854 and it was closed after two years and reopened as the Alhambra. The building was demolished in 1936, the name was also adopted by many other British music hall theatres located elsewhere, in Bradford, in Hull and in Glasgow etc. The name comes from association with the Moorish splendour of the Alhambra palace in Granada and this lasted for two years, and then the decision to add a circus ring was taken. When it reopened on 3 April 1858 it was renamed The Alhambra, the 1858 building conversion to the Alhambra Circus, was also by T. Hayter Lewis. It had a 104 feet frontage and was tall for the time. It was built in a Moorish style, with lavish fenestration and it was a complete contrast with the neighbouring buildings. Inside there was a central rotunda 94 feet in diameter and 94 feet high, There was a secondary entrance to the rear on Charing Cross Road. The Leicester Square theatres name was changed frequently, but usually reflected the buildings stylistic associations with the celebrated Alhambra in Granada, by 1864, the circus had become the Alhambra Music Hall. Rebuildings occurred in 1866 and 1881, by Perry and Reed, from 1871, when it obtained a licence, an equestrian ballet was performed. The Alhambra was destroyed by fire in 1882, and was rebuilt in a restrained style by Reed. Further rebuildings were in 1888 by Edward Clark,1892 by Clark and Pollard,1897 by W. M. Brutton, and in 1912 by the prolific theatre architect, Frank Matcham. Other names used during the life of the theatre were the Royal Alhambra Palace, Alhambra Theatre of Varieties, Theatre Royal, Alhambra, Great United States Circus, londons Alhambra was predominantly used for the popular entertainment of the day, music hall. The usual music hall acts were performed, as well as the début of Jules Léotard performing his aerial act, other entertainments included patriotic demonstrations celebrating the British Empire and British military successes. The theatre also staged ballet and light opera, in the 1860s, John Hollingshead took over management at the Alhambra and made it famous for its sumptuous staging, alluring corps de ballet and the notorious front-of-house Promenade bar. At its bars, the attractions of the Alhambras ballet were not merely artistic, You must please imagine yourself a man about town, with money in your pocket and it is early in the year 1870. You find a companion with similar inclination, and after a leisurely dinner at the club you find yourself looking at the Alhambra. You are purposely too late for the strident variety with which the programme opens, the interval is one of the main features of the show, for the huge basement canteen is open to any of the audience who think a visit worth while
Alhambra Theatre
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The Alhambra Theatre dominated Leicester Square in 1874
Alhambra Theatre
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Jules Léotard,
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, performed his aerial act at the Alhambra.
21.
Hamilton Clarke
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James Hamilton Siree Clarke, better known as Hamilton Clarke, was an English conductor, composer and organist. Clarke began as an organist, pianist and theatre conductor, becoming a director for Gilbert and Sullivan. While conducting at London theatres, he composed a tremendous volume of church music, organ solos, songs, operettas. Beginning in the late 1870s, he composed music as musical director for many of Henry Irvings spectacular productions at the Lyceum Theatre. He also composed music for many of the German Reed Entertainments, clark published a Manual of Orchestration and music criticism, as well as some fiction. In 1889, he took charge of the Victorian National Orchestra in Australia, returning to England in 1892, Clarke was born in Birmingham, the son of an amateur organist. He began playing the piano at age four, and by six had improvised a tune that he reused in one of his mature works forty years later and he took up the violin when he was eight and played in an orchestra at twelve. In the same year, he became the organist at his church and was composing music by age 19 and his parents did not approve of his taking music up as a profession, and he was sent to work first with an analytical chemist and then with a land surveyor. According to The Musical Times, he did not take up music as a profession until he was in his twenties, in 1864 he was awarded the first prize for anthems by the College of Organists. Clarke held posts as organist in Ireland and was conductor of the Belfast Anacreontic Society, from 1866 he was organist at Queens College, Oxford, where he also conducted the Queens College Musical Society. He left that post soon, however, to become a theatrical conductor, Clarke was Richard DOyly Cartes musical director and conductor at the Opera Comique in 1874 for The Broken Branch adapted from La Branche Cassée. Clarke interpolated into the operetta a ballet of his own composition, Clarke then moved with the production to the Opera Comique in January 1876, where it ran until May. In 1876 Clarke was reported to be suffering from a long and painful illness, by December of that year, Clarke was working again, adapting the score and providing new choruses and ballet music for the first English performances of Die Fledermaus at the Alhambra Theatre. In 1877, Clarke participated in an early experiment with telephony. The Times reported this concert thus, Amateurs know that Mr Clarke is a composer of more than ordinary promise, and were, therefore, not surprised to hear a work of more than ordinary merit. The Symphony is in four movements, the first of which, allegro molto appassionato, the third, molto grazioso, is a minuet, so graceful and tuneful that a more fitting designation could hardly be applied to it. It has also a most engaging alternativo equally noticeable, the whole terminates effectively with a reference to the opening phrase of the allegro appassionato. The symphony was played under the direction of its composer, to whom Mr Sullivan
Hamilton Clarke
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Hamilton Clarke
Hamilton Clarke
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Richard D'Oyly Carte engaged Clarke as conductor in 1874
Hamilton Clarke
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Clarke's friend and associate,
Arthur Sullivan
Hamilton Clarke
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1898 production of Clarke's operetta for boys, Hornpipe Harry
22.
Jean-Vital Jammes
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Jean-Vital Jammes was a French opera singer. During a stage career spanning 40 years, he created many leading roles, including Zurga in Bizets Les pêcheurs de perles. Born in Le Passage dAgen near the town of Agen, he was largely self-taught, after singing in a several provincial theatres, he was engaged by the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris and later by the Opéra-Comique. Following his retirement from the stage, Ismaël lived in Marseille where he died at the age of 68, Ismaël was born Jean-Vital Jammes, the son of an illiterate tailor in Le Passage near the town of Agen. He showed an early interest in singing and as a developed a beautiful baritone voice. He then set off for Paris hoping to further his training as a singer, instead, he taught himself to read and write and took a few singing lessons, although it is not clear who the teacher was. He worked largely on his own to learn the music of the baritone roles of his day and managed to secure a position singing baritone. He appeared there with success in a series of leading roles between 1862 and 1863 and came to the attention of the impresario Léon Carvalho. In 1862, Ismaël was engaged by Carvalho for his Théâtre Lyrique company in Paris, ismaëls time with the company marked the peak of his career. His debut on 30 September 1863 was as Zurga in the premiere of Bizets Les pêcheurs de perles and he also created the role of Ourrias in Gounods Mireille and sang the title role in Verdis Macbeth for the premiere of its revised version on 21 April 1865. Other roles included the role in Donizettis Don Pasquale, Falstaff in Nicolais The Merry Wives of Windsor. Ismaël stayed with the Théâtre Lyrique until Carvalho went bankrupt in 1868, in the mid-1870s, vocal problems attributed to laryngitis caused him to retire from the Opéra-Comique. He was appointed Professor of Lyric Declamation at the Paris Conservatoire on 1 February 1874, Ismaël repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, asked for a public investigation into the affair. He went on to appear in two world premieres at the Théâtre de la Renaissance—Lecocqs La jolie persane in 1879 and Planquettes Les voltigeurs de la 32ème in 1880. Amongst his performances at the Théâtre du Casino in Monte Carlo was the role in Planquettes Le chevalier Gaston for its world premiere in 1879. His pupils included Max Bouvet and Jean Delvoye, Ismaël married twice, first at the age of 27 to the soprano Alceste Anastasie Hortense Cœuriot. The couple were both singing at the Grand Théâtre de Lyon at the time of their marriage in 1852 and they were divorced in 1885 after years of living apart, and shortly thereafter he married Marie Garcin, a young opera singer who had been one of his pupils. The following year, he brought a lawsuit against his first wife to prevent her from continuing to perform under his last name but was unsuccessful, Ismaël spent the last years of his life with Marie at his villa in Marseille and gave private singing lessons
Jean-Vital Jammes
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Jean-Vital Jammes ("Ismaël") c. 1873
Jean-Vital Jammes
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Caricature of Ismaël as Macbeth (1865)
Jean-Vital Jammes
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Caricature of Ismaël Le Trombinoscope, 1877
Jean-Vital Jammes
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Jean-Vital Jammes and Marie Garcin c. 1887
23.
Zulma Bouffar
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Aged only 6 Bouffar appeared in La fille bien gardée in Marseille, and followed this with successful performances in Lyon. Her father then toured with her around western Europe and Scandinavia, after her father’s death in 1854 she continued travelling, bringing into her repertoire some of the contemporary songs of Offenbach, who heard her sing in Hamburg in 1864. The same year Bouffar appeared at Bad Ems in Offenbachs Lischen et Fritzchen, from this time for about 12 years Bouffar was probably Offenbachs mistress – his longest extra-marital liaison. In 1873 Bouffar was reported in the Parisian press to have been considered for the role of Bizets new opera. Although the composer refuted the story, the singer did attend the premiere of the piece in 1875, from 1891-93 Bouffar became the manager of the Théâtre de lAmbigu-Comique. In the latter part of her career, Bouffar appeared in operettas by Lecocq and Strauss. She announced her retirement from the stage in 1902
Zulma Bouffar
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Zulma Bouffar
24.
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
Royal Opera House
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The Royal Opera House, Bow Street frontage with
Plazzotta 's statue, Young Dancer, in the foreground
Royal Opera House
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"Rich's Glory": John Rich takes over (seemingly invades) his new Covent Garden Theatre. (A caricature by
William Hogarth)
Royal Opera House
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A satirical drawing from 1811 of the "Pigeon Holes" that flanked the upper gallery at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
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A picture of the first theatre drawn shortly before it burned down in 1808
25.
Gustav Mahler
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Gustav Mahler was an Austrian late-Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century, born in Bohemia as a German-speaking Jew of humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism to secure the regular opposition. Late in his life he was director of New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Mahlers œuvre is relatively limited, for much of his composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Some of Mahlers immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955 to honour the composers life, the Mahler family came from eastern Bohemia and were of humble circumstances, the composers grandmother had been a street pedlar. Bohemia was then part of the Austrian Empire, the Mahler family belonged to a German-speaking minority among Bohemians, from this background the future composer developed early on a permanent sense of exile, always an intruder, never welcomed. Bernhard Mahler, the son and the composers father, elevated himself to the ranks of the petite bourgeoisie by becoming a coachman. He bought a modest house in the village of Kalischt, halfway between Prague in Bohemia and Brno in Moravia, in the center of todays Czech Republic. Bernhards wife, Marie, gave birth to the first of the couples 14 children, a son Isidor, two years later, on 7 July 1860, their second son, Gustav, was born. In December 1860, Bernhard Mahler moved with his wife and infant son, Gustav, to the town of Iglau,25 km to the south-east, the family grew rapidly, but of the 12 children born to the family in Iglau only six survived infancy. All of these elements would later contribute to his musical vocabulary. When he was four years old, Gustav discovered his grandparents piano and he developed his performing skills sufficiently to be considered a local Wunderkind and gave his first public performance at the town theatre when he was ten years old. Although Gustav loved making music, his reports from the Iglau Gymnasium portrayed him as absent-minded. In 1871, in the hope of improving the results, his father sent him to the New Town Gymnasium in Prague. In 1874 he suffered a personal loss when his younger brother Ernst died after a long illness. Mahler sought to express his feelings in music, with the help of a friend, Josef Steiner, he work on an opera
Gustav Mahler
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Gustav Mahler, photographed in 1907 at the end of his period as director of the Vienna Hofoper
Gustav Mahler
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Jihlava (German: Iglau) where Mahler grew up
Gustav Mahler
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Mahler was influenced by
Richard Wagner during his student days, and later became a leading interpreter of Wagner's operas.
Gustav Mahler
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Gustav Mahler's home in Leipzig, where he composed his Symphony No. 1
26.
Hamburg State Opera
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The Hamburg State Opera is one of the leading opera companies of Germany. The theatre near the square of Gänsemarkt was founded in 1678, Opera in Hamburg dates back to 2 January 1678 when the Oper am Gänsemarkt was inaugurated with a performance of a biblical Singspiel by Johann Theile. It was not a theatre but the first public opera house in Germany established by the art-loving citizens of Hamburg. The Hamburg Bürgeroper resisted the dominance of the Italianate style and rapidly became the musical center of the German Baroque. In 1703, George Friedrich Handel was engaged as violinist and harpsichordist, in 1705, Hamburg gave the world première of his opera Nero. To replace the wooden structure, the first stone was laid on 18 May 1826 for the Stadt-Theater on the present-day site of the Hamburg State Opera. The new theater, with seating for 2,800 guest, was inaugurated less than a year later with Beethovens incidental music to Egmont. The building was renovated in 1873, when both the exterior and interior remodeled in the reigning Gründerzeit style of the time, and again in 1891, under the direction of Bernhard Pollini, the house mounted its first complete Ring Cycle in 1879. In 1883, the year of Wagners death, a cycle comprising nine of his operas was commenced, the musical directors Hans von Bülow and Gustav Mahler also contributed to the fame of the opera house. In the beginning of the 20th century, opera was an important part of the theatres repertoire, ferruccio Busonis Die Brautwahl and Erich Wolfgang Korngolds Die tote Stadt both had their world premieres in Hamburg. In the 1930s, after Hitler came to power, the house was renamed Hamburgische Staatsoper. The current Staatsoper was opened on 15 October 1955 with Mozarts Die Zauberflöte, in 1967, under the direction of Joachim Hess, the Hamburg State Opera became the first company to broadcasts its operas in color on television, beginning with Die Hochzeit des Figaro. Ten of these productions have been released on DVD by ArtHaus Musik as Cult Opera of the 1970s. All of these were performed in German regardless of the original language, more recently, Hamburg gave the world premières of Wolfgang Rihms The Conquest of Mexico and Helmut Lachenmanns The Little Match Girl, for which it received much international acclaim. The company has won the Opera House of the Year award by the German magazine Opernwelt in 1997, the Australian conductor Simone Young became both general director and chief conductor of the Hamburg State Opera at the start of 2005/06 season. She is succeeded, from the 2015/16 season, by Georges Delnon as Intendant and Kent Nagano as chief conductor, list of opera houses Opera world premieres at the Hamburg State Opera Handels lost Hamburg operas Media related to Hamburgische Staatsoper at Wikimedia Commons Hamburg State Opera website
Hamburg State Opera
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The Opera's front façade on Dammtorstraße (2010)
Hamburg State Opera
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The Stadt-Theater, built in 1827.
Hamburg State Opera
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The same building, redecorated (1890), destroyed in 1943.
Hamburg State Opera
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Current interior
27.
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
Vienna State Opera
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Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
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Vienna State Opera at night
Vienna State Opera
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Marble staircase sweeps up from the main entrance to the first floor
Vienna State Opera
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Inside one of the halls
28.
Bavarian State Opera
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The Bavarian State Opera is an opera company based in Munich, Germany. Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra, the opera company which was founded under Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653, when Giovanni Battista Maccionis Larpa festante was performed in the court theatre. In 1753 the Residence Theatre was opened as a major stage, while opera performances were also held in the Prinzregententheater, the companys home base is the National Theatre Munich on Max-Joseph-Platz. In 1875 the Munich Opera Festival took place for the first time which nowadays can be viewed as one of the most important opera festivals worldwide, sir Peter Jonas became the Staatsoper Staatsintendant in 1993, the first British Intendant of any major German speaking opera house. In 2008, Nikolaus Bachler became General Director of the opera company, the current Generalmusikdirektor of the company is Kirill Petrenko, since 2013. In October 2015, the announced the extensions of the current respective contracts of Bachler. Petrenko is scheduled to work as a guest conductor with the company in the year of his current contract. Henneberg 28 June 2000, KANON für geschlossene Gesellschaft by Ruedi Häusermann 30 October 2000, Bernarda Albas Haus by Aribert Reimann 27 June 2002, K
Bavarian State Opera
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National Theatre Munich exterior
Bavarian State Opera
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National Theatre Munich interior
29.
Tenor
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Tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is one of the highest of the male voice types. The tenors vocal range lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, and A4, the A above middle C, in solo work, this range extends up to C5, or tenor high C. The low extreme for tenors is roughly A♭2, at the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to two Fs above middle C. The tenor voice type is divided into the leggero tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor. The name tenor derives from the Latin word tenere, which means to hold, in medieval and Renaissance polyphony between about 1250 and 1500, the tenor was the structurally fundamental voice, vocal or instrumental. All other voices were normally calculated in relation to the tenor, until the late 16th century introduction of the contratenor singers, the tenor was usually the highest voice, assuming the role of providing a foundation. It was also in the 18th century that tenor came to signify the male voice that sang such parts, thus, for earlier repertoire, a line marked tenor indicated the parts role, and not the required voice type. Indeed, even as late as the century, partbooks labelled tenor might contain parts for a range of voice types. The vocal range of the tenor is one of the highest of the voice types. Within opera, the lowest note in the tenor repertoire is probably A♭2 in Rossinis rarely performed La donna del lago in the role of Rodrigo di Dhu. Within more frequently performed repertoire, Mime and Herod both call for an A2, a few tenor roles in the standard repertoire call for a tenor C. Some of the few top Cs in the operatic repertoire are either optional or interpolated by tradition. However, the highest demanded note in the standard operatic repertoire is D5. Some operatic roles for tenors require a darker timbre and fewer high notes, in the leggero repertoire, the highest note is F5, therefore, very few tenors can, given the raising of concert pitch since its composition, have this role in their repertoire without transposition. Within the tenor voice type category are seven generally recognized subcategories, leggero tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, Mozart tenor, Also known as the tenore di grazia, the leggero tenor is essentially the male equivalent of a lyric coloratura. This voice is light, agile, and capable of executing difficult passages of fioritura, the typical leggero tenor possesses a range spanning from approximately C3 to E♭5, with a few being able to sing up to F5 or higher in full voice. In some cases, the chest register of the leggero tenor may extend below C3, voices of this type are utilized frequently in the operas of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and in music dating from the Baroque period. Leggero tenor roles in operas, The lyric tenor is a warm voice with a bright, full timbre that is strong but not heavy
Tenor
–
Tenor voice range (C3–C5) indicated in sheet music (left) and on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C (C4).
30.
Baritone
–
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice types. It is the most common male voice, the baritone voice type is generally divided into the baryton-Martin baritone, lyric baritone, Kavalierbariton, Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, baryton-noble baritone, and the bass-baritone. The first use of the term baritone emerged as baritonans, late in the 15th century, at this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices, but in 17th-century Italy the term was all-encompassing and used to describe the average male choral voice. Baritones took roughly the range as it is today at the beginning of the 18th century. Indeed, many works of the 18th century have roles marked as bass that in reality are low baritone roles. Examples of this are to be found, for instance, in the operas, the greatest and most enduring parts for baritones in 18th-century operatic music were composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They include Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Papageno in The Magic Flute and these included the likes of Filippo Galli, Giovanni Inchindi, and Henri-Bernard Dabadie. The basse-taille and the bass were commonly confused because their roles were sometimes sung by singers of either actual voice part. The bel canto style of vocalism which arose in Italy in the early 19th century supplanted the castrato-dominated opera seria of the previous century and it led to the baritone being viewed as a separate voice category from the bass. More often than not, however, baritones found themselves portraying villains, the principal composers of bel canto opera are considered to be, Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Giacomo Meyerbeer, and the young Giuseppe Verdi. Figaro in Il barbiere is often called the first true baritone role, however, Donizetti and Verdi in their vocal writing went on to emphasize the top fifth of the baritone voice, rather than its lower notes—thus generating a more brilliant sound. The major international baritone of the first half of the 19th century was the Italian Antonio Tamburini and he was a famous Don Giovanni in Mozarts eponymous opera as well as being a Bellini and Donizetti specialist. Commentators praised his voice for its beauty, flexibility and smooth tonal emission, Tamburinis range, however, was probably closer to that of a bass-baritone than to that of a modern Verdi baritone. His French equivalent was Henri-Bernard Dabadie, who was a mainstay of the Paris Opera between 1819 and 1836 and the creator of several major Rossinian baritone roles, including Guillaume Tell. Dabadie sang in Italy, too, where he originated the role of Belcore in Lelisir damore in 1832, the most important of Tamburinis Italianate successors were all Verdians. In France, Paul Barroilhet succeeded Dabadie as the Paris operas best known baritone, like Dabadie, he also sang in Italy and created an important Donizetti role, in his case, Alphonse in La favorite. Antonio Pini-Corsi was the standout Italian buffo baritone in the period between about 1880 and World War I, reveling in comic roles by Rossini, Donizetti and Paer. In 1893, he created the part of Ford in Verdis last opera, notable among their contemporaries were the cultured and technically adroit French baritones Jean Lassalle, Victor Maurel, Paul Lhérie, and Maurice Renaud
Baritone
–
Baritone voice range (A2–A4) indicated in sheet music (left) and on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C (C4).
31.
Mezzo-soprano
–
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-sopranos vocal range extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above. In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C, the mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic mezzo-soprano. Mezzo-sopranos are well represented in music, early music. Some roles designated for lighter soubrette sopranos are sung by mezzo-sopranos, such roles include Despina in Mozarts Così fan tutte and Zerlina in his Don Giovanni. Mezzos sometimes play dramatic soprano roles such as Santuzza in Mascagnis Cavalleria rusticana, Lady Macbeth in Verdis Macbeth, the vocal range of the mezzo-sopranos lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. Mezzo-sopranos generally have a heavier, darker tone than sopranos, the mezzo-soprano voice resonates in a higher range than that of a contralto. The terms Dugazon and Galli-Marié are sometimes used to refer to light mezzo-sopranos, usually men singing within the female range are called countertenors since there is a lighter more breathy tonal quality difference. Within the mezzo-soprano voice type category are three generally recognized subcategories, coloratura mezzo-soprano, lyric mezzo-soprano, and dramatic mezzo-soprano, a coloratura mezzo-soprano has a warm lower register and an agile high register. The roles they sing often demand not only the use of the register but also leaps into the upper tessitura with highly ornamented. They have a range from approximately the G below middle C to the B two octaves above middle C, some coloratura mezzo-sopranos can sing up to high C or high D, but this is very rare. What distinguishes these voices from being called sopranos is their extension into the register and warmer vocal quality. Although coloratura mezzo-sopranos have impressive and at times thrilling high notes, they are most comfortable singing in the middle of their range, many of the hero roles in the operas of Handel and Monteverdi, originally sung by male castrati, can be successfully sung today by coloratura mezzo-sopranos. Rossini demanded similar qualities for his heroines, and Vivaldi wrote roles frequently for this voice as well. Coloratura mezzo-sopranos also often sing lyric-mezzo-soprano roles or soubrette roles, coloratura mezzo-soprano roles in operas, The lyric mezzo-soprano has a range from approximately the G below middle C to the A two octaves above middle C. This voice has a smooth, sensitive and at times lachrymose quality. Lyric mezzo-sopranos do not have the agility of the coloratura mezzo-soprano or the size of the dramatic mezzo-soprano. The lyric mezzo-soprano is ideal for most trouser roles and this voice has less vocal facility than the coloratura mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
–
Mezzo-soprano voice range (A3–A5) indicated in sheet music (left) and on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C (C4).
32.
Voice type
–
Other considerations are physical characteristics, speech level, scientific testing, and vocal register. A singers voice type is identified by a known as voice classification, by which the human voice is evaluated. The discipline of voice classification developed within European classical music and is not generally applicable to other forms of singing, voice classification is often used within opera to associate possible roles with potential voices. Voice classification is a tool for singers, composers, venues, while useful, voice classification systems have been used too rigidly, i. e. a house assigning a singer to a specific type and only casting him or her in roles they consider belonging to this category. A singer will choose a repertoire that suits his or her instrument, many different voice types are used in vocal pedagogy in a variety of voice classification systems. Most of these types, however, are grouped into seven major categories that are, for the most part. Women are typically divided into three groups, soprano, mezzo-soprano, and alto, men are usually divided into four groups, countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass. Some women fall into the tenor or baritone groups, while men identified as countertenors can be grouped as contralto, mezzo-soprano, when considering the pre-pubescent voice, an eighth term, treble, is applied. Within each of these categories, subcategories identify specific vocal qualities such as coloratura facility. The vocal range of classical performance covers about five octaves, from a low G1 to a high G6, any individuals voice can perform over a range of one and a half to more than two octaves. Vocal ranges are grouped into overlapping types that each span two octaves. Many singers fall between groups and can perform some parts in either type, soprano range, The soprano is the highest singing voice. The typical soprano voice lies between C4 and C6, the low extreme for sopranos is roughly A3. Most soprano roles do not extend above C6 although there are several standard soprano roles that call for D6, at the highest extreme, some coloratura soprano roles may reach to F6. Soprano tessitura, The tessitura of the soprano voice lies higher than all the other voices except the sopranino, in particular, the coloratura soprano has the highest tessitura of all the soprano subtypes. Soprano subtypes, As with all types, sopranos are often divided into different subcategories based on range, vocal color or timbre, the weight of voice. Sopranos are often broken down into five subcategories, coloratura soprano, soubrette, lyric soprano, spinto soprano, two types of soprano especially dear to the French are the Dugazon and the Falcon, which are intermediate voice types between the soprano and the mezzo soprano. A Dugazon is a darker-colored soubrette, a Falcon a darker-colored soprano drammatico
Voice type
–
Soprano voice range (C4–C6) indicated on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C.
33.
Conducting
–
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. A conductors directions will almost invariably be supplemented or reinforced by verbal instructions or suggestions to their musicians in rehearsal prior to a performance. The conductor typically stands on a podium with a large music stand for the full score. Conducting while playing a piano or synthesizer may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras, communication is typically non-verbal during a performance. However, in rehearsals, frequent interruptions allow the conductor to give verbal directions as to how the music should be played or sung, Conductors act as guides to the orchestras or choirs they conduct. They choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make adjustments, work out their interpretation. They may also attend to matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions and selecting members. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles such as big bands are usually led by conductors. The principal conductor of an orchestra or opera company is referred to as a music director or chief conductor, or by the German words Kapellmeister or Dirigent. Conductors of choirs or choruses are sometimes referred to as director, chorus master, or choirmaster. Conductors of concert bands, military bands, marching bands and other bands may hold the title of director, bandmaster. Respected senior conductors are sometimes referred to by the Italian word, an early form of conducting is cheironomy, the use of hand gestures to indicate melodic shape. This has been practiced at least as far back as the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, other devices to indicate the passing of time came into use. Rolled up sheets of paper, smaller sticks and unadorned hands are all shown in pictures from this period, the large staff was responsible for the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully, who injured his foot with one while conducting a Te Deum for the Kings recovery from illness. The wound became gangrenous and Lully refused amputation, whereupon the gangrene spread to his leg, in instrumental music throughout the 18th century, a member of the ensemble usually acted as the conductor. This was sometimes the concertmaster, who could use his bow as a baton and it was common to conduct from the harpsichord in pieces that had a basso continuo part. In opera performances, there were sometimes two conductors – the keyboard player was in charge of the singers, and the principal violinist or leader was in charge of the orchestra. By the early 19th century, it became the norm to have a dedicated conductor, the size of the usual orchestra expanded during this period, and the use of a baton became more common, as it was easier to see than bare hands or rolled-up paper
Conducting
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Steven Sametz conducting the Lehigh University Choir, sans baton
Conducting
Conducting
–
Andrew Lee Neer conducting with a baton in Detroit in 2011
Conducting
–
Giuseppe Verdi conducting his opera
Aida in 1881
34.
Soprano
–
A soprano is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The sopranos vocal range is from approximately middle C =261 Hz to high A =880 Hz in choral music, in four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto. The lyric soprano is the most common female singing voice, the word soprano comes from the Italian word sopra, as the soprano is the highest pitch human voice, often given to the leading female roles in operas. The term soprano is also based on the Latin word superius which, like soprano, the word superius was especially used in choral and other multi-part vocal music between the 13th and 16th centuries. The soprano has the highest vocal range of all voice types, a soprano and a mezzo-soprano have a similar range, but their tessituras will lie in different parts of that range. The low extreme for sopranos is roughly A3 or B♭3, within opera, the lowest demanded note for sopranos is F3. Often low notes in higher voices will project less, lack timbre, however, rarely is a soprano simply unable to sing a low note in a song within a soprano role. The high extreme, at a minimum, for non-coloratura sopranos is soprano C, a couple of roles have optional E♭6s, as well. In the coloratura repertoire several roles call for E♭6 on up to F6, in rare cases, some coloratura roles go as high as G6 or G♯6, such as Mozarts concert aria Popoli di Tessaglia. Or the title role of Jules Massenets opera Esclarmonde, while not necessarily within the tessitura, a good soprano will be able to sing her top notes full-throated, with timbre and dynamic control. In opera, the tessitura, vocal weight, and timbre of voices, a singers tessitura is where the voice has the best timbre, easy volume, and most comfort. Within the soprano voice type category are five generally recognized subcategories, coloratura soprano, soubrette, lyric soprano, spinto soprano, the coloratura soprano may be a lyric coloratura or a dramatic coloratura. The lyric coloratura soprano is a very agile light voice with a high upper extension capable of fast vocal coloratura, Light coloraturas have a range of approximately middle C to high F with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing somewhat higher or lower. Dramatic coloraturas have a range of approximately low B to high F with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing higher or lower. In classical music and opera, a soubrette soprano refers to both a type and a particular type of opera role. A soubrette voice is light with a bright, sweet timbre, a tessitura in the mid-range, the soubrette voice is not a weak voice, for it must carry over an orchestra without a microphone like all voices in opera. The voice, however, has a lighter weight than other soprano voices with a brighter timbre
Soprano
–
Soprano voice range (C4–C6) indicated in sheet music (left) and on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C.
35.
En travesti
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Not to be confused with the South American gender identity term, Travesti. Travesti is a term referring to the portrayal of a character in an opera, play. Some sources regard travesti as an Italian term, some as French, depending on sources, the term may be given as travesty, travesti, or en travesti. Similarly, in the popular genre of Victorian burlesque, there were usually one or more breeches roles. As a boy player, Alexander Cooke is thought to have created many of Shakespeares principal female roles, as well as Agrippina in Ben Jonsons Sejanus His Fall. With the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, women began to appear on the English stage, although some female roles continued to be played by boys and young men, including romantic leads. Edward Kynaston, whose roles included the role in Ben Jonsons Epicoene and Evadne in Beaumont. Londons Shakespeares Globe theatre, a reconstruction of the original Globe Theatre. Toby Cockerell played Katherine of France in the opening production of Henry V in 1997, while Mark Rylance played Cleopatra in the 1999 production of Antony. Travesti roles for men are still to be found in British pantomime, where there is at least one female character traditionally played by a male actor. Castrati, adult males with a singing voice, appeared in the earliest operas – initially in female roles. In the first performance of Monteverdis Orfeo in 1607 the roles of Eurydice, however, by 1680 the castrati had become the predominant singers for leading male roles as well. The use of castrati for both male and female roles was particularly strong in the Papal states, where women were forbidden from public performances until the 19th century. An exception to this practice was in 17th and 18th century French opera where it was traditional to use uncastrated male voices both for the hero and for malevolent female divinities and spirits. In Lullys 1686 opera Armide the hero was sung by a haute-contre while the spirit of hatred was sung by a tenor. In Rameaus 1733 Hippolyte et Aricie, the hero was sung by an haute-contre, the remaining female roles in both operas were sung by women. The title role of the vain but ugly marsh nymph in Rameaus Platée is also for an haute-contre, Female roles in opera sung by men can still be found, although they are not common. Azio Corghis 2005 opera Il dissoluto assolto, which incorporates elements from Mozarts Don Giovanni
En travesti
–
Sarah Bernhardt as
Hamlet
En travesti
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The famous castrato
Farinelli caricatured in one of his female roles
En travesti
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The ballerina
Eugénie Fiocre as a
matador circa 1860
En travesti
–
Pierre Jélyotte as the
nymph Plataea in
Rameau 's opera
Platée
36.
Don Giovanni
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Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It is based on the legends of Don Juan, a fictional libertine and it was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the National Theater, now called the Estates Theatre, on 29 October 1787. Da Pontes libretto was billed as a dramma giocoso, a designation of its time that denotes a mixing of serious. Mozart entered the work into his catalogue as an opera buffa, although sometimes classified as comic, it blends comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements. A staple of the operatic repertoire, Don Giovanni for the five seasons 2011/12 through 2015/16 was ninth on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide. It has also proved a fruitful subject for writers and philosophers, the opera was commissioned as a result of the overwhelming success of Mozarts trip to Prague in January and February 1787. The subject matter may have chosen in consideration of the long history of Don Juan operas in Prague. For Bertati, the setting was Villena, Spain, whereas Da Pontes libretto only specifies a city in Spain, the score was completed on 28 or 29 October 1787 after Da Ponte was recalled to Vienna to work on another opera. Reports about the completion of the overture conflict, some say it was completed the day before the premiere. More likely it was completed the day before, in light of the fact that Mozart recorded the completion of the opera on 28 October. The score calls for double woodwinds, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, basso continuo for the recitatives, and the string section. The composer also specified occasional special musical effects, in act 2, Giovanni is seen to play the mandolin, accompanied by pizzicato strings. In the same act, two of the Commendatores interventions are accompanied by a chorale of oboes, clarinets, bassoons. The instrumentation and vocal writing are very reminiscent of Mozarts treatment of the voice of Neptune in Idomeneo, the opera was first performed on 29 October 1787 in Prague under its full title of Il Dissoluto Punito ossia il Don Giovanni – Dramma giocoso in due atti. The work was received, as was often true of Mozarts work in Prague. The Prager Oberpostamtzeitung reported, Connoisseurs and musicians say that Prague has never heard the like, the Provincialnachrichten of Vienna reported, Herr Mozart conducted in person and was welcomed joyously and jubilantly by the numerous gathering. Mozart also supervised the Vienna premiere of the work, which place on 7 May 1788. These cuts are very seldom performed in theatres or recordings, the operas final ensemble was generally omitted until the early 20th century, a tradition that apparently began very early on
Don Giovanni
–
Portrait of
Francisco D'Andrade in the title role by
Max Slevogt, 1912
Don Giovanni
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Original playbill for the Vienna premiere of Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
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Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Don Giovanni,
Salzburg Festival 2014
Don Giovanni
–
Luigi Bassi in the title role of Don Giovanni in 1787
37.
Melodrama
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A melodrama is a dramatic or literary work in which the plot, which is typically sensational and designed to appeal strongly to the emotions, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Characters are often drawn, and may appear stereotyped. In scholarly and historical contexts, melodramas are Victorian dramas in which orchestral music or song was used to accompany the action. The term is now applied to stage performances without incidental music, novels, movies. In modern contexts, the melodrama is generally pejorative, as it suggests that the work in question lacks subtlety, character development. By extension, language or behavior which resembles melodrama is often called melodramatic, the term originated from the early 19th-century French word mélodrame. It is derived from Greek melos, music, and French drame and this applies to both Victorian stage melodrama and 20th-century film melodrama. Movie director Sidney Lumet stressed the primacy of plot, saying in 2007 In a well-written drama, the characters in a well-written melodrama come out of the story. The relationship of melodrama to realism is complex, the protagonists of melodramatic works may either be ordinary people who are caught up in extraordinary events, or highly exaggerated and unrealistic characters. According to Singer, late Victorian and Edwardian melodrama combined a focus on realism in stage sets and props with anti-realism in character. Melodrama in this period strove for accuracy in the depiction of incredible. Novelist Wilkie Collins is noted for his attention to accuracy in detail in his works, beginning in the 18th century, melodrama was a technique of combining spoken recitation with short pieces of accompanying music. In such works, music and spoken dialogue typically alternated, although the music was also used to accompany pantomime. The earliest known examples are scenes in J. E. Eberlins Latin school play Sigismundus, the first full melodrama was Jean-Jacques Rousseaus Pygmalion, the text of which was written in 1762 but was first staged in Lyon in 1770. The overture and an Andante were composed by Rousseau, but the bulk of the music was composed by Horace Coignet, a different musical setting of Rousseaus Pygmalion by Anton Schweitzer was performed in Weimar in 1772, and Goethe wrote of it approvingly in Dichtung und Wahrheit. Pygmalion is a monodrama, written for one actor, some 30 other monodramas were produced in Germany in the fourth quarter of the 18th century. When two actors are involved the term duodrama may be used, georg Benda was particularly successful with his duodramas Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea. The sensational success of Bendas melodramas led Mozart to use two long melodramatic monologues in his opera Zaide, other later, and better-known examples of the melodramatic style in operas are the grave-digging scene in Beethovens Fidelio and the incantation scene in Webers Der Freischütz
Melodrama
–
Poster for
The Perils of Pauline (1914) a classic melodramatic film series
38.
Harry Liedtke
–
Harry Liedtke was a German film actor. Liedtke was born in Königsberg, East Prussia to a merchant as the out of 12 children. After the death of his father in 1896, he grew up in an orphanage, by the chance acquaintance of Hans Oberländer, a stage director at Berlin, he started to take stage classes and was first engaged at the municipal Theater of Freiberg, Saxony. In 1908 Liedtke worked at the New German Theatre in New York City, in 1912 Liedtke appeared for the first time in the silent movie Zu spät and from now on usually as a young Charming Boy and gentleman. With Ernst Lubitsch he made movies like Das fidele Gefängnis, Die Augen der Mumie Ma, Carmen, Die Austernprinzessin, Madame DuBarry, Sumurun and he also appeared in several crime stories as Stuart Webbs or Joe Deebs written by Joe May. Liedtke was an actor in the 1920s and partner of Marlene Dietrich in I Kiss Your Hand. Liedtke met with success in sound films, probably due to his advancing age. From 1920 till 1928, Liedtke was married to the actress Käthe Dorsch, on 28 April 1945 Liedtke was killed by Red Army Soldiers in his house at Bad Saarow-Pieskow east of Berlin together with his third wife Christa Tordy. One of the Russians smashed a bottle over his head when he tried to save a woman who had taken shelter in his apartment from being raped. Harry Liedtke at the Internet Movie Database Harry Liedtke at www. filmportal. de pictures
Harry Liedtke
–
Harry Liedtke
39.
Emil Jannings
–
Emil Jannings was a German actor, popular in 1920s Hollywood. He was the first Oscar recipient, honored with the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 1929 ceremony, to date, he is still the only German to have won the Best Actor Oscar. Jannings is best known for his collaborations with F. W. Murnau and Josef von Sternberg, including 1930s The Blue Angel, with Marlene Dietrich. Der blaue Engel was meant as a vehicle for Jannings to score a place for himself in the new medium of sound film, Jannings later starred in a number of Nazi propaganda films, which made him unemployable as an actor after the fall of the Third Reich. He was christened Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz in Rorschach, Switzerland, the son of Emil Janenz, an American businessman from St. Louis, and his wife Margarethe, originally from Germany. Jannings held German citizenship, while he was young the family moved to Leipzig in the German Empire. Jannings ran away from school and went to sea, when he returned to Görlitz, his mother finally allowed him to begin a traineeship at the town state theatre, where Jannings started his stage career. From 1901 onwards he worked with theatre companies in Bremen, Nuremberg, Leipzig, Königsberg. Jannings made his breakthrough in 1918 with his role as Judge Adam in Kleists Broken Jug at the Schauspielhaus, Jannings was a theater actor who went into films, though he remained dissatisfied with the limited expressive possibilities in the silent era. Having signed a contract with the UFA production company, he starred in Die Augen der Mumie Ma and Madame DuBarry, both with Pola Negri in the main female part. He also performed in the 1922 film version of Othello and in F. W. Murnaus The Last Laugh, as a proud, Jannings worked with Murnau on two other films, playing the title character in Herr Tartüff, and as Mephistopheles in Faust. His increasing popularity enabled Jannings to sign an agreement with Paramount Pictures and eventually follow his acting colleagues Lubitsch and he started his career in 1927 with The Way of All Flesh directed by Victor Fleming and in the following year performed in Josef von Sternbergs The Last Command. In 1929 Jannings won the first Best Actor Oscar for his work in both films and he and Sternberg also cooperated in Street of Sin, though they actually differed about Jannings acting in front of the camera. His Hollywood career came to an end with the advent of talkies as his thick German accent was difficult to understand and his dialogue was initially dubbed by another actor in the part-talkie The Patriot directed by Ernst Lubitsch, although Jannings own voice was restored after he objected. Returning to Europe, he starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in the 1930 film The Blue Angel, according to Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin, The Life and The Legend, Jannings was not actually the winner of the first best actor vote, but the runner-up. While researching her book, Orlean discovered that it was in fact Rin Tin Tin, the German Shepherd dog, one of the biggest movie stars of his time, who won the vote. The Academy, however, worried about not being taken seriously if they gave the first Oscar to a dog, after the Nazi Machtergreifung in 1933, Jannings continued his career in the service of Nazism and cinema. He also performed in his role in The Broken Jug directed by Gustav Ucicky
Emil Jannings
–
Oscar winner Jannings back in Berlin, May 1929
Emil Jannings
–
Jannings as Kreon in
Hasenclever 's Antigone,
Großes Schauspielhaus, 1920
Emil Jannings
–
Jannings with Minister Goebbels on
Wolfgangsee, 1938
40.
Eva May
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Eva May was an Austrian actress. She was the daughter of the film director Joe May and his wife Mia May and she was married three times on each occasion to a film director, Manfred Liebenau, Lothar Mendes and the final time to Manfred Noa. In 1924 she committed suicide by gunshot, hedy Lamarr, The Most Beautiful Woman in Film. The Concise Cinegraph, Encyclopedia of German, eva May at the Internet Movie Database
Eva May
–
Eva May in 1920
41.
Lya De Putti
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Lya de Putti was a Hungarian film actress of the silent era, noted for her portrayal of vamp characters. Born as Amália Putti in Vécse, Austria-Hungary, she was one of the four children of Gyula Putti, an officer, and his wife. She had two brothers, Géza and Sándor, the served as a first lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian army. She began her career on the Hungarian Vaudeville circuit. She soon progressed to Berlin, where after performing in the ballet and she became the premiere danseuse at the Berlin Winter Garden in 1924. Around that time German film director Joe May noticed her and cast her in her first important film and she followed this success with noteworthy performances in Manon Lescaut and Varieté. The latter featured her opposite Emil Jannings and directed by E. A. Dupont. While in Germany, de Putti starred with actors as Conrad Veidt, Alfred Abel, Werner Krauss, Grete Mosheim. De Putti came to America in February 1926, at the time she told reporters she was twenty-two years old but her ocean liners records list her as having been twenty-six. De Putti was generally cast as a character, and often wore her dark hair short. De Putti starred in D. W. Griffiths The Sorrows of Satan, the film was released in two versions, one in America and the other in Europe. In the American version one scene had de Putti fully dressed whereas the same scene in the European release had de Putti topless, De Putti was once rumored to be engaged to Count Ludwig von Salm-Hoogstraeten, a former husband of the American oil heiress Millicent Rogers. In 1913, she married Zoltán Szepessy, a county magistrate, the couple had two daughters, Ilona and Judith. The following year, de Putti went to Hollywood but found success there. Despite working with such distinguished actors as Adolphe Menjou and Zasu Pitts, she failed to make it big, later she went to England to make silent movies and studied the English language. She then returned to America to attempt talkies, hospitalized to have a chicken bone removed from her throat, de Putti contracted a throat infection. She was taken to the Harbor Sanitarium, then located at 667 Madison Avenue where she reportedly behaved irrationally, eventually she was found in a corridor. She developed pleurisy in her side, followed by pneumonia in both lungs
Lya De Putti
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Lya de Putti in the film Manon Lescaut (1926) by Arthur Robinson. Photography by
Alexander Binder. Collection
EYE Film Institute Netherlands.
Lya De Putti
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Lya De Putti
42.
Georg Alexander
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Georg Alexander was a German actor. From Caligari to California, Erich Pommers Life in the International Film Wars, Georg Alexander at the Internet Movie Database Georg Alexander at Virtual History
Georg Alexander
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Georg Alexander in 1928
43.
Anny Ondra
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Anny Ondra was a Czech film actress whose husband was German boxing great Max Schmeling. She was born Anna Sophie Ondráková in Tarnów, Galicia, Austria–Hungary, now Poland, the daughter of a Czech, Austro-Hungarian officer, Ondra spent her childhood in Tarnów, Pula and Prague. Her fathers name was Bohumír and mothers name Anna and she had two brothers, Tomáš and Jindřich. At seventeen she played in the theater and was acting in her first film, the film was directed by her boyfriend, director Karel Lamač. Anne was a graduate of the convent school and her father had for her a government official. Anna decided otherwise, for a career and began to live with Karel Lamač. I swim like a fish, ride a cowboy, and I would do it all in the applied, summarized the nineteen-year-old lady of her education. After some years, she wanted to start a family, so, after a three-year romance, on 6 July 1933 Ondra married German boxer Max Schmeling, with whom she appeared in the film Knock-out. Their marriage was a one, although childless. Ondra miscarried after a car accident in 1936 and could no longer have children and they were married until her death in 1987. Lamac remained her friend for a lifetime and he died in her arms in 1952 in Hamburg. German fascists were trying throughout their marriage to exploit their fame, often were seen their photos with Goebbels and Hitler - Max as a German superman and Anny such blond Aryan. Brave Max refused to accept honors and even helped to hide two Jewish children, saving their lives. In Nazi Germany it was a capital offense, yet after the war, they got a big financial penalty for collaboration, and in the Czech Republic they issued an arrest warrant. That was the reason why he never visited the homeland, after the war they were left without funds and assets. In 1949 they moved to Hollenstedt near Hamburg and her husband started their business on their land, later Max Schmeling begun working for The Coca-Cola Company. Ondra was buried in the Saint Andreas Friedhof cemetery in Hollenstedt and her husband Max Schmeling died in 2005 and was buried next to her. The heritage of Anny and Max has been referred to Max-Schmeling-Stiftung foundation and she acted in Czech, Austrian, and German comedies in the 1920s, and in some British dramas, most notably Alfred Hitchcocks The Manxman and Blackmail
Anny Ondra
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Wedding of Max Schmeling and Anny Ondra (1933)
44.
Evelyn Laye
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Evelyn Laye, CBE was an English actress who was active on the London light opera stage, and later in New York and Hollywood. Her first husband, actor Sonnie Hale, left her for Jessie Matthews and her second husband was actor Frank Lawton, with whom she often appeared in stage productions. Laye was born as Elsie Evelyn Lay in Bloomsbury, London and her parents were both actors and her father a theatre manager. For the first few years of her career she played in musical comedy and operetta. Among her successes during the 1920s were Phi-Phi, Madame Pompadour, The Dollar Princess, Blue Eyes and she made her Broadway debut in 1929 in the American première of Noël Cowards Bitter Sweet and appeared in several early Hollywood film musicals. She continued acting in such as The Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. After the Second World War, she had success, but she returned to the West End in 1954. She also acted several times opposite her husband, actor Frank Lawton, including in the 1956 sitcom My Husband. Other stage successes included Silver Wedding, The Amorous Prawn and Phil the Fluter, married to the actor Sonnie Hale in 1926, Laye received widespread public sympathy when Hale left her for the actress Jessie Matthews in 1928. She was initially reluctant to abandon the marriage, but, despite a trial reconciliation. She subsequently wed actor Frank Lawton, with whom she remained married until his death, awarded a CBE in 1973, Laye continued acting well into her nineties. It was reported after Layes death that the Queen Mother had petitioned the then Prime Minister John Major for Laye to be awarded the DBE, Laye died in a nursing home in Pimlico, Central London from respiratory failure in 1996, aged 95
Evelyn Laye
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Evelyn Laye
45.
Gina Malo
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Gina Malo was an American film actress, born Janet Flynn in Cincinnati, Ohio. She appeared in a number of British films in the 1930s, though born in Cincinnati as Janet Flynn, Gina Malo represented herself as a Parisian film actress when securing her first Broadway parts. After a stint with Florenz Ziegfeld as a showgirl, Malos ambitions as a singer found vent when she secured the part of the prima dona in Sigmund Rombergs operetta The New Moon. When a Paris production of Rombergs musical formed, she jumped at the chance to play the part again, a capable French speaker, she obtained another stage role in Paris singing in Broadway. She returned to New York as a replacement for Lily Damita in Sons o’Guns, rumors of her American nativity were not laid to rest by her speaking in a heavy French accent to interviewers, but her singing, markedly superior to Damitas, won praise in 1930. After Ruby Keeler bailed out of The Gangs All Here during its Philadelphia tryout in 1931, Keeler may have intuited something, for the show was being hijacked by Ted Healy, not a place for an ambitious leading lady to be. The musical died after 23 performances, assuaging her wounds by crossing the Atlantic, she appeared in the London production of Victoria and her Hussar. She remained in London for the production of Jerome Kerns The Cat and the Fiddle, when the British-Gaumont film company decided to adapt Johann Strausss Fledermaus to the screen, they tapped Malo to play Adele, the singing maid. Waltz Time was a success in England and the United States, firmly established in the British entertainment world, Malo next starred in The Bride of the Lake, a nostalgic, tuneful rendering of Dion Boucicaults old Irish melodrama, The Colleen Bawn. She also appeared on screen in a Jan Kiepura vehicle, My Song for You, Malo in the late 1930s was a fixture of the English stage, playing in a succession of hits, The Gang Show, On Your Toes, Diversion and The Gentle People. Her film career remained lively, with such as The Private Life of Don Juan, Windbag the Sailor, Where Theres a Will. In 1937, she married actor and dramatist Romney Brent, in March 1940, the couple left London for New York as war loomed. She could only secure a role in a B-level scare flick and she played in American regional summer theater through World War II. Malo eventually found her way to Toronto and won praise there for her work in repertory work, after the war, she toured in Brents production of Merry Wives of Windsor. J. Brooks Atkinson, Songs, Dances and Stooges, NYT 2-19-1931,28
Gina Malo
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Gina Malo
46.
George Baker (record singer)
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This article refers to the record singer. For other people with the name, see George Baker. George Baker was an English singer and he is remembered for singing on thousands of gramophone records in a career that spanned 53 years, beginning in 1909. He is especially associated with the baritone roles in recordings of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas. George Baker, also known as George Portland, was born in Birkenhead and he studied violin, flute and piano as a child. At the age of 16, he served as organist and choirmaster at the Woodford Parish Church in Cheshire and he did the same at two churches in Birkenhead between 1903 and 1906. Baker studied singing with John Acton and won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, there he studied with Gustave Garcia and was awarded a Patron Funds Grant to continue his vocal studies in Milan in 1914. Baker first recorded for Pathé Records in 1909, while still a student, Pathé had just changed its emphasis from cylinders to vertically-cut disc records. After his Pathé debut, in the early 1910s Baker began making records for the Gramophone Company. In 1934 he recalled the experience as follows, We worked really hard in those days, the records thus made would be played back again and further records made from them. The conditions under which we recorded were crude in the extreme and we sang in a tiny bare room and into a big tin trumpet, which was connected direct to the recording needle by a rubber tube. We sang collarless and in shirt sleeves, for the place quickly grew stifling, when electrical recording came in, this was all changed, and we now sing into microphones in beautiful rooms, not unlike broadcasting studios. Baker recorded roles in the first British recordings of Parsifal by Richard Wagner, Hiawatha by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Salome by Richard Strauss, in 1915 Baker made his stage debut in the revue Nows the Time at the Alhambra Theatre. In the 1920s, he performed both the Carl Rosa and British National Opera companies. During this tour, Baker made several recordings for the Aeolian Company, during 1927 and 1928, he toured in the United States as Macheath in The Beggars Opera, making his New York debut in March 1928. He sang in the first complete recording of The Mikado and subsequently recorded a role in all of the G&S operas, most of them at least twice. He described the process in the early years as follows, The first time we recorded the operas was in the days of the old tin trumpet. When it came to our turn to sing in concerted numbers, Baker made his final recording as a singer in December 1962, in Gilbert and Sullivans Ruddigore, a few weeks before his 78th birthday
George Baker (record singer)
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George Baker with
Bridget D'Oyly Carte, 1964
47.
Hans Moser (actor)
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Hans Moser was an Austrian actor who, during his long career, from the 1920s up to his death, mainly played in comedy films. He was particularly associated with the genre of the Wiener Film, Moser appeared in over 150 films. Born Johann Julier in Vienna, Moser very often portrayed the man in the street, typically someone elses subordinate – servant, waiter, porter, shopkeeper, coachman, petty bureaucrat, etc. Also always he played honest, moral and well-intentioned people who, unable to cool and think clearly in crucial situations, get themselves. In Mosers comedy films, Paul Hörbiger, Theo Lingen, Oskar Sima, however Moser was also a serious actor, especially on the stage and, towards the end of his life, on television. In many musical films, Moser can also be heard interpreting a Wienerlied, during the Nazi regime, Moser had severe problems because of his wife Blanca Hirschler, who was Jewish, but he refused to divorce her. It was only because of his popularity that the regime allowed him to continue to appear in films. His wife eventually fled to Hungary to avoid further trouble, after the war the couple reunited. Hans Moser died in Vienna in 1964, aged 83 and his continuing popularity is attested to by the fact that his style of speaking is still being parodied, often by very young entertainers
Hans Moser (actor)
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publicity photo
Hans Moser (actor)
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A bust of Moser in Hans Moser Park in
Hietzing
