1.
Giuseppe Verdi
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Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a family of moderate means. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, whose works influenced him. In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy and he also participated briefly as an elected politician. He surprised the world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida. The baptismal register, prepared on 11 October 1813, lists his parents Carlo, additionally, it lists Verdi as being born yesterday, but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. Verdi himself, following his mother, always celebrated his birthday on 9 October, Verdi had a younger sister, Giuseppa, who died aged 17 in 1833. From the age of four, Verdi was given lessons in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster, Baistrocchi. After learning to play the organ, he showed so much interest in music that his parents provided him with a spinet. Verdis gift for music was apparent by 1820–21 when he began his association with the local church, serving in the choir, acting as an altar boy for a while. After Baistrocchis death, Verdi, at the age of eight, Carlo Verdi was energetic in furthering his sons education. something which Verdi tended to hide in later life. He picture emerges of youthful precocity eagerly nurtured by a father and of a sustained, sophisticated. Verdi returned to Busseto regularly to play the organ on Sundays, at age 11, Verdi received schooling in Italian, Latin, the humanities, and rhetoric. By the time he was 12, he began lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo, director of the music school. This information comes from the Autobiographical Sketch which Verdi dictated to the publisher Giulio Ricordi late in life, in 1879, written, understandably, with the benefit of hindsight, it is not always reliable when dealing with issues more contentious than those of his childhood. The other director of the Philharmonic Society was Antonio Barezzi, a grocer and distiller. The young Verdi did not immediately become involved with the Philharmonic, by June 1827, he had graduated with honours from the Ginnasio and was able to focus solely on music under Provesi. By 1829–30, Verdi had established himself as a leader of the Philharmonic, none of us could rival him reported the secretary of the organisation, Giuseppe Demaldè
2.
Camille du Locle
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Camille du Locle was a French theatre manager and a librettist. He was born in Orange, France, from 1862 he served as assistant to his father-in-law, Émile Perrin at the Paris Opéra, moving in 1870 to the Opéra-Comique. He is best remembered for mounting the original production of Bizets Carmen in 1875 and his friendship with Ernest Reyer led to him providing libretti for Sigurd and Salammbô. Du Locle was responsible for completing the libretto of Don Carlos after the death of Joseph Méry and he also played a key role in the genesis of Aida in 1869-70. In 1876, a dispute arose with Verdi, and Du Locle moved to Capri. He lived in what is called today “Villa Certosella”, according to Charles Pigot, Du Locle inspired the subject, words and music of Bizets Djamileh. He was a pall-bearer at Bizets funeral and made a speech at his interment at Père Lachaise
3.
Don Carlos (play)
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Don Carlos is a tragedy in five acts by Friedrich Schiller, it was written between 1783 and 1787 and first produced in Hamburg in 1787. The title character is Carlos, Prince of Asturias and the play as a whole is loosely modeled on events in the 16th century under the reign of King Philip II of Spain. Poultons adaptation was directed by Michael Grandage in a well-reviewed staging, Schiller, Volume Two, Don Carlos, Mary Stuart. MacDonalds adaptation was first staged in Edinburgh in 1995, cultural depictions of Philip II of Spain Carlos, Prince of Asturias Stevens, Robert. Schillers Don Carlos, the light and warmth of a timeless play, review of a 2004 production in Sheffield, England of Mike Poultons adaptation from the German, along with an extended discussion of plays history. University of Oxford production of Don Carlos at the Oxford Playhouse, 18-21 Feb.2009
4.
Friedrich Schiller
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Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life, Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and they frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship and these led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision. Friedrich Schiller was born on 10 November 1759, in Marbach, Württemberg as the son of military doctor Johann Kaspar Schiller. Schiller grew up in a religious family and spent much of his youth studying the Bible. His father was away in the Seven Years War when Friedrich was born and he was named after king Frederick the Great, but he was called Fritz by nearly everyone. Kaspar Schiller was rarely home during the war, but he did manage to visit the family once in a while and his wife and children also visited him occasionally wherever he happened to be stationed. When the war ended in 1763, Schillers father became an officer and was stationed in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Due to the high cost of living—especially the rent—the family moved to nearby Lorch, although the family was happy in Lorch, Schillers father found his work unsatisfying. He sometimes took his son with him, in Lorch, Schiller received his primary education. The quality of the lessons was fairly bad, and Friedrich regularly cut class with his older sister, because his parents wanted Schiller to become a pastor, they had the pastor of the village instruct the boy in Latin and Greek. Pastor Moser was a teacher, and later Schiller named the cleric in his first play Die Räuber after him. As a boy, Schiller was excited by the idea of becoming a cleric and often put on black robes, in 1766, the family left Lorch for the Duke of Württembergs principal residence, Ludwigsburg. Schillers father had not been paid for three years, and the family had been living on their savings but could no longer afford to do so, so Kaspar Schiller took an assignment to the garrison in Ludwigsburg. There the Schiller boy came to the attention of Karl Eugen and he entered the Karlsschule Stuttgart, in 1773, where he eventually studied medicine. During most of his life, he suffered from illnesses that he tried to cure himself. While at the Karlsschule, Schiller read Rousseau and Goethe and discussed Classical ideals with his classmates, the plays critique of social corruption and its affirmation of proto-revolutionary republican ideals astounded its original audience
5.
Salle Le Peletier
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The Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul, however, the project to build a chapel was never carried out due to the 1830 revolution. Today the Fontaine Louvois in the Square Louvois occupies the spot where the chapel would have been built, the Salle de la rue de Richelieu had been the principal venue of the Paris Opera since 1794. During the construction the opera and ballet companies occupied the Théâtre Favart, although the theatre was meant to be temporary and was built of wood and plaster, it continued to be used by the Opéra for more than fifty years. The theatre, which was 14,000 square metres in area with a 104 ft. stage, was advanced for its time. On 6 February 1822 gas was used for the first time in order to light the stage effects in Nicolas Isouards opera Aladin ou La Lampe merveilleuse. The stage and orchestra pit were able to be removed in order to transform the auditorium into a hall which could accommodate large balls. Among these works, La Sylphide, Giselle, Paquita, Le corsaire, Le papillon, La source, and Coppélia. Among the great ballerinas to grace the stage of the Opéra during this time were Marie Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Carolina Rosati, Fanny Elssler, Lucile Grahn, the game was played in the Dukes private box during a performance of Bellinis Norma. In 1875 the new theatre, today known as the Palais Garnier, was inaugurated, Opera in Paris, 1800–1850, A Lively History. Fauser, Annegret, editor, Everist, Mark, editor, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press. Totowa, New Jersey, Rowman and Littlefield, the Paris Opéra, an encyclopedia of operas, ballets, composers, and performers. Opéra National de Paris Notes on the Académie Royale de Musique from the Scholarly Societies Project
6.
Libretto
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A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata. Libretto, from Italian, is the diminutive of the word libro, sometimes other language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, livret for French works and Textbuch for German. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. The relationship of the librettist to the composer in the creation of a work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources. In the context of a modern English language musical theatre piece, Libretti for operas, oratorios and cantatas in the 17th and 18th centuries generally were written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Metastasio was one of the most highly regarded librettists in Europe and his libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th-century librettist was Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote the libretti for three of Mozarts greatest operas, as well as for other composers. Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer, Auber, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. The French writers duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote a number of opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach, Jules Massenet. Arrigo Boito, who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli, the libretto is not always written before the music. Some composers wrote their own libretti, Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Hector Berlioz, too, wrote the libretti for two of his works, La Damnation de Faust and Les Troyens. Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchners play Woyzeck for the libretto of Wozzeck, sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer, this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Belsky, or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics, thus, a musical such as Fiddler on the Roof has a composer, a lyricist and the writer of the book. In rare cases, the composer writes everything except the dance arrangements - music, lyrics and libretto, Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. A famous case of the latter is Wagners 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris, since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. The libretto of a musical, on the hand, is almost always written in prose
7.
Carlos, Prince of Asturias
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Several of the Carlist pretenders to the Spanish throne were also known as Don Carlos. Carlos, Prince of Asturias, also known as Don Carlos, was the eldest son and his mother was Maria Manuela of Portugal, daughter of John III of Portugal. Carlos was mentally unstable and was imprisoned by his father in early 1568 and his fate was a theme in Spains Black Legend, and inspired a play by Friedrich Schiller and an opera by Giuseppe Verdi. Carlos was born at Valladolid on 8 July 1545 and his mother, María Manuela of Portugal, died four days later from a haemorrhage she had suffered after the birth. The young Infante Carlos was delicate and deformed and he grew up proud and willful and, as a young adult, began to show signs of mental instability. Many of his physical and psychological afflictions may have stemmed from the common to the House of Habsburg. Carlos had only four great-grandparents instead of the maximum of eight, in 1559 Prince Carlos was betrothed to Elizabeth of Valois, eldest daughter of King Henry II of France. However, for reasons, she instead married King Philip in 1560. It was agreed in 1564 that Carlos should marry Anna, Carlos was recognized in 1560 as the heir-apparent to the Castilian throne, and three years later as heir-apparent to the Crown of Aragon as well. He became also the 218th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece and he often attended meetings of the Council of State and was in correspondence with his aunt Margaret, who governed the Low Countries in his fathers name. In 1562 Carlos fell down a flight of stairs, which caused serious head injuries and his life was saved by a trepanation of the skull, performed by the eminent anatomist Andreas Vesalius. After his recovery, Carlos became wild and unpredictable in his behavior and he took a dislike to the Duke of Alba, who became the commander of Philips forces in the Netherlands, a position that had been promised to Carlos. Carlos possibly made contacts with representative of the Count Egmont from the Low Countries and he also exhibited an antipathy towards his father, whose murder, according to Carlos confessor, he supposedly contemplated at one time. In the autumn of 1567 he made preparations to flee to the Netherlands, however, John of Austria, whom Carlos tried to draw into his plans, revealed everything to King Philip. Carlos remained in confinement at the Alcázar of Madrid until his death six months later. It was later claimed that he was poisoned on the orders of King Philip, especially by William the Silent in his Apology, modern historians think that Don Carlos died of natural causes. He grew very thin and developed eating disorders during his imprisonment, Carlos left an unfavourable impression on some foreign ambassadors. Another Venetian, Paolo Tiepolo, wrote, He wished neither to study nor to take physical exercise, the idea of King Philip confining and murdering his own son later played a minor role in establishing the anti-Spanish Black Legend
8.
Elisabeth of Valois
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Elisabeth of Valois was a Spanish queen consort. The eldest daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici and she was born in the Château de Fontainebleau. Even though Elisabeth had to give precedence to Mary, the two would remain friends for the rest of their lives. While it is acknowledged that her sister Margaret and her future sister-in-law Mary were prettier than she, she was one of Catherines attractive daughters. Elisabeth was also described as being shy, timid and very much in awe of her mother, although there is also evidence that Catherine was tender. This was certainly evident in her letters to Elisabeth, Elisabeth married Philip II of Spain son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Isabella of Portugal in 1559. Originally married via proxy at Notre Dame prior to leaving France, the marriage was a result of the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis. His second wife, Mary I of England, had recently died, at her wedding, she met the famous painter Sofonisba Anguissola and Ana de Mendoza, who would live with her the rest of her life. Phillip II appointed Anguissola, a renowned Italian female artist, to be a lady-in-waiting, under Anguissolas tutelage, Elisabeth improved her amateur painting skills even further. Anguissola also influenced the works of her children, Isabella Clara Eugenia and Caterina Michaela. Philip was completely enchanted by his 14-year-old bride, and within a period of time had given up his mistress. Despite the significant age difference, Elisabeth was also pleased with her husband. Philip enjoyed hosting chivalric tournaments to entertain his wife, Elisabeth would play liege lady to the three young princes of the Spanish Court, Carlos, Prince of Asturias, John of Austria, and Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma. Elisabeth had originally been betrothed to Philips son, Carlos, Prince of Asturias and her relationship with her troubled stepson Carlos was warm and friendly. Despite reports of his bizarre behavior, Carlos was always kind. When it eventually became necessary for Philip to lock him away, Philip was very attached to Elisabeth, staying close by her side even when she was ill with smallpox. Elisabeths first pregnancy in 1564 ended with a miscarriage of twin girls and she later gave birth to Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain on 12 August 1566, and then to Isabellas younger sister Catherine Michelle of Spain on 10 October 1567. Elisabeth had another miscarriage on 3 October 1568, and died the same day, after the death of Elisabeth, Catherine de Medici offered her younger daughter Margaret as a bride for Philip
9.
House of Habsburg
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The House of Habsburg, also called House of Hapsburg, or House of Austria, was one of the most influential royal houses of Europe. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between 1438 and 1740, from the sixteenth century, following the reign of Charles V, the dynasty was split between its Austrian and Spanish branches. Although they ruled distinct territories, they maintained close relations. The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, by Count Radbot of Klettgau. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the name as his own. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the 11th, 12th, by 1276, Count Radbots seventh generation descendant Rudolph of Habsburg had moved the familys power base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria. Rudolph had become King of Germany in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs ruled until 1918. A series of dynastic marriages enabled the family to expand its domains to include Burgundy, Spain and its colonial empire, Bohemia, Hungary. In the 16th century, the separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Monarchy branches. The House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century, the senior Spanish branch ended upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and was replaced by the House of Bourbon. It was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine, the new successor house styled itself formally as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, although it was often referred to as simply the House of Habsburg. His grandson Radbot, Count of Habsburg founded the Habsburg Castle, the origins of the castles name, located in what is now the Swiss canton of Aargau, are uncertain. There is disagreement on whether the name is derived from the High German Habichtsburg, or from the Middle High German word hab/hap meaning ford, the first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108. The Habsburg Castle was the seat in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The Habsburgs expanded their influence through arranged marriages and by gaining political privileges, in the 13th century, the house aimed its marriage policy at families in Upper Alsace and Swabia. They were also able to high positions in the church hierarchy for their members. Territorially, they often profited from the extinction of other families such as the House of Kyburg. By the second half of the 13th century, count Rudolph IV had become one of the most influential territorial lords in the area between the Vosges Mountains and Lake Constance
10.
House of Valois
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The House of Valois was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. They succeeded the House of Capet to the French throne, and were the house of France from 1328 to 1589. Junior members of the family founded cadet branches in Orléans, Anjou, Burgundy, the Valois descended from Charles, Count of Valois, the second surviving son of King Philip III of France. Their title to the throne was based on a precedent in 1316, the Capetian dynasty seemed secure both during and after the reign of Philip IV from 1285 to 1313. Philip had left three surviving sons and a daughter, each son became king in turn but died young without male heirs, leaving only daughters who could not inherit the throne. When Charles IV died in 1328, the French succession became more problematic, in 1328 three candidates had plausible claims to the throne, Philip, Count of Valois, son of Charles of Valois, who was the closest heir in male line and a grandson of Philip III. Because his father was the brother of the late Philip IV, he was therefore a nephew of Philip IV, further, Charles IV had chosen him as the regent before his death. Philip, Count of Évreux, another nephew of Philip IV and he strengthened his position by marrying Joan of France, daughter of Louis X. Edward III of England, son of Isabella of France, daughter and only surviving child of Philip IV. Edward claimed to be the heir as a grandson of Philip IV, in England, Isabella of France claimed the throne on behalf of her son. Like the French, the English law of succession did not allow the succession of females, the French rejected Isabellas claims, arguing that since she herself, as a woman, could not succeed, then she could not transmit any such right to her son. Thus the French magnates chose Philip of Valois, who became Philip VI of France, the throne of Navarre went its separate way, to Joan of France, daughter of Louis X, who became Joan II of Navarre. Because diplomacy and negotiation had failed, Edward III would have to back his claims with force to obtain the French throne, for a few years, England and France maintained an uneasy peace. Eventually, an escalation of conflict between the two led to the confiscation of the duchy of Aquitaine. Instead of paying homage to the French king, as his ancestors had done and these events helped launch the Hundred Years War between England and France. The Hundred Years War could be considered a war of succession between the houses of Valois and Plantagenet. The early reign of Philip VI was a one for France. The new king fought the Flemings on behalf of his vassal, the count of Flanders, Edward IIIs aggression against Scotland, a French ally, prompted Philip VI to confiscate Guyenne. In the past the English kings would have to submit to the King of France, but Edward, having descended from the French kings, claimed the throne for himself
11.
Philip II of Spain
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Philip II of Spain, called the Prudent, was King of Spain, King of Portugal, King of Naples and Sicily, and jure uxoris King of England and Ireland. He was also Duke of Milan, from 1555, he was lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands. Known in Spain as Felipe el Prudente, his empire included territories on every continent then known to Europeans, during his reign, Spain reached the height of its influence and power. This is sometimes called the Golden Age, the expression, the empire on which the sun never sets, was coined during Philips time to reflect the extent of his dominion. During Philips reign there were separate state bankruptcies in 1557,1560,1569,1575 and this was partly the cause of the declaration of independence that created the Dutch Republic in 1581. The Ambassador went on to say He dresses very tastefully, the culture and courtly life of Spain were an important influence in his early life. He was tutored by Juan Martínez Siliceo, the future Archbishop of Toledo, Philip displayed reasonable aptitude in arms and letters alike. Later he would study with more illustrious tutors, including the humanist Juan Cristóbal Calvete de Estrella, though Philip had good command over Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese, he never managed to equal his father, Charles V, as a polyglot. While Philip was also a German archduke of the House of Habsburg, Philip felt himself to be culturally Spanish, he had been born in Spain and raised in the Castilian court, his native tongue was Spanish, and he preferred to live in Spain. This would ultimately impede his succession to the imperial throne, in April 1528, when Philip was eleven months old, he received the oath of allegiance as heir to the crown from the Cortes of Castile. Philip was also close to his two sisters, María and Juana, and to his two pages, the Portuguese nobleman Rui Gomes da Silva and Luis de Requesens, the son of his governor Juan de Zúñiga. These men would serve Philip throughout their lives, as would Antonio Pérez, Philips martial training was undertaken by his governor, Juan de Zúñiga, a Castilian nobleman who served as the commendador mayor of Castile. The practical lessons in warfare were overseen by the Duke of Alba during the Italian Wars, Philip was present at the Siege of Perpignan in 1542 but did not see action as the Spanish army under Alba decisively defeated the besieging French forces under the Dauphin of France. On his way back to Castile, Philip received the oath of allegiance of the Aragonese Cortes at Monzón. The king-emperors interactions with his son during his stay in Spain convinced him of Philips precocity in statesmanship, Philip, who had previously been made the Duke of Milan in 1540, began governing the most extensive empire in the world at the young age of sixteen. Charles left Philip with experienced advisors—notably the secretary Francisco de los Cobos, Philip was also left with extensive written instructions that emphasised piety, patience, modesty, and distrust. These principles of Charles were gradually assimilated by his son, who would grow up to become grave, self-possessed, personally, Philip spoke softly and had an icy self-mastery, in the words of one of his ministers, he had a smile that cut like a sword. After living in the Netherlands in the years of his reign
12.
Paris Opera
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The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of France. Classical ballet as we know it today arose within the Paris Opera as the Paris Opera Ballet and has remained an integral, small scale and contemporary works are also staged in the 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille. The companys annual budget is in the order of 200 million euros, with this money, the company runs the two houses and supports a large permanent staff, which includes the orchestra of 170, a chorus of 110 and the corps de ballet of 150. Each year, the Opéra presents about 380 performances of opera, ballet and other concerts, to an audience of about 800,000 people. In the 2012/13 season, the Opéra presented 18 opera titles,13 ballets,5 symphonic concerts, the companys training bodies are also active, with 7 concerts from the Atelier Lyrique and 4 programmes from the École de Danse. The poet Pierre Perrin began thinking and writing about the possibility of French opera in 1655 and he believed that the prevailing opinion of the time that the French language was fundamentally unmusical was completely incorrect. Seventeenth-century France offered Perrin essentially two types of organization for realizing his vision, an academy or a public theater. On 28 June 1669, Louis XIV signed the Privilège accordé au Sieur Perrin pour létablissement dune Académie dOpéra en musique and he was free to select business partners of his choice and to set the price of tickets. No one was to have the right of free entry including members of the royal court, although it was to be a public theatre, it retained its status as royal academy in which the authority of the king as the primary stakeholder was decisive. The monopoly, originally intended to protect the enterprise from competition during its phase, was renewed for subsequent recipients of the privilege up to the early French Revolution. As Victoria Johnson points out, the Opera was an organization by nature so luxurious and expensive in its productions that its survival depended on financial protection. His first opera Pomone with music by Robert Cambert opened on 3 March 1671, a second work, Les peines et les plaisirs de lamour, with a libretto by Gabriel Gilbert and music by Cambert, was performed in 1672. The institution was renamed the Académie Royale de Musique and came to be known in France simply as the Opéra. Because of legal difficulties Lully could not use the Salle de la Bouteille, during Lullys tenure, the only works performed were his own. The first productions were the pastorale Les fêtes de lAmour et de Bacchus, Lully greatly desired a better theatre and persuaded the king to let him use the one at the Palais-Royal free of charge. The Théâtre du Palais-Royal had been altered in 1660 and 1671, the first production in the new theatre was Alceste on 19 January 1674. The opera was bitterly attacked by those enraged at the restrictions that Lully had caused to be placed on the French, to mitigate the damage, Louis XIV arranged for new works to be premiered at the court, usually at the Chateau Vieux of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This had the advantage of subsidizing the cost of rehearsals, as well as most of the machinery, sets, and costumes
13.
Charles-Antoine Cambon
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Charles-Antoine Cambon was a French scenographer who acquired international notoriety in the Romantic Era. Little biographical information exists on Cambons early years, other than that he would have been active as an aquarelle, at Ciceris workshop Cambon made acquaintance with Humanité-René Philastre, who would become his first long-term associate. As a stage design for a Salon at the Bibliothèque-Musée de lOpéra testifies, Philastre, from that time until 1848, Philastre and Cambon accepted numerous joint commissions for theatrical interior decorations and stage designs. Thus, they decorated the interiors of venues in Angoulême, Antwerp, Beaune, Brest, Choiseul, Dijon, Douai, Ghent, Lille, Lyon, Paris, Cambon separated from Philastre in 1848 as the latter emigrated to Spain. Cambon was to co-design the premiere of Verdis Aida, but dropped out of the due to unknown circumstances. Cambon taught many pupils at his studio at 3 rue Neuve-Samson. Cambon was named Chevalier de la Légion dhonneur in 1869 and he was a fried of Prosper Mérimée and Stendhal. Although Cambon, like most contemporary scenographers, created scenery of various types and styles during his long career, Cambons designs and scale-models in Conté crayon, sepia or pastel furthermore reveal an exquisite draughtsmanship in its own right. On 17 May 1877,2,000 designs by Cambon were sold by his widow at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris, two hundred of these were acquired by the Bibliothèque-Musée de lOpéra, which would also preserve Cambons maquettes for the Académie Royale de Musique from 1866 onwards. A number of scale-models predating 1866 have also been preserved, other stage designs by Cambon are held at the Archives of the Comédie-Française. The Grand Théâtre of Ghent, interior decorations by Philastre and Cambon from 1841, the Théâtre of Montbéliard, ceiling painted by Cambon and Thierry in 1857. The Château des Princes in Chimay, interior decorations and act curtain designed by Cambon between 1860 and 1863, the curtain was altered in moder times into a backdrop with newly added flats to create a garden set. Marie-Antoinette Allevy, La mise-en-scène en France dans la première moitié du dix-neuvième siècle, germain Bapst, Essai sur l’histoire du théâtre, la mise en scène, le décor, le costume, l’architecture, l’éclairage, l’hygiène. Peter Beudert, ‘Stage Painters at the Paris Opéra in the Nineteenth Century’, Music in Art, International Journal for Music Iconography 31/1-2, 63-72, sylvie Chevalley, ‘L’atelier Philastre et Cambon et la Comédie-Française’, in Anatomy of an illusion, studies in nineteenth-century scene design, 13-18. Pierre De Clercq, ‘Humanité-René Philastre en Charles-Antoine Cambon, decorateurs van theatergebouwen’, in De Opera van Gent, het ‘Grand Théâtre’ van Roelandt, architectuur-interieurs-restauratie, ed. Luc Demeester and Birgit Waeterloos, 51-68. Nicole Decugis and Suzanne Reymond, Le décor de théâtre en France du Moyen Age à1925, bruno Forment, ‘Staging Verdi in the Provinces, The Aida Scenery of Albert Dubosq’, in Staging Verdi and Wagner, ed. Naomi Matsumoto, 263-286,266. Catherine Join-Diéterle, Les décors de scène de l’Opéra de Paris à l’époque romantique, l’envers du décor à la Comédie-Française et à lOpéra de Paris au XIXe siècle. Eugène-Oscar Lami, ed. Dictionnaire encyclopédique et biographique de l’industrie et des arts industriels, Madeleine Manderyck, ‘De bouwgeschiedenis van het Théâtre Royal Français’, in De Bourla Schouwburg, een tempel voor de muzen, ed. Madeleine Manderyck and et al
14.
Teatro Verdi (Florence)
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Teatro Verdi is a theatre in Florence, Italy. Established in 1854, it is located on Via Giuseppe Verdi on the block between Via Ghibellina and Via dei Lavatoi, the Teatro Verdi was originally called Teatro Pagliano, but was renamed in 1901 to honour Giuseppe Verdi. The theatre is located on the spot where once stood the 14th-century Stinche Prison. The theatres seats an audience of 806, including 6 reserved for wheelchairs, the stage is 14 metres deep and 18 metres wide, with a slope of 5%. The orchestra pit measures 16 metres by 4 metres, the proscenium is 12 metres wide and 17 metres high and 2 metres deep, and the stage is raised from the floor by 1.5 metres. The seven artists dressing rooms and two wards have access from Via Isola delle Stinche where there is also an infirmary
15.
Giovanni Ricordi
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In 1803 he created a copisteria in Milan, working as a music copyist and dealer in printed music and instruments with the Teatro Carcano, which opened in that year, and with the Teatro Lentasio. In 1807 he studied in Leipzig at the Breitkopf & Härtel company, when he returned to Milan, in early 1808 he founded his publishing company, initially with a partner who dropped out by the middle of the year. This resulted in assembled a significant catalogue of music became the basis of the Ricordi company. In contrast, many of Ricordis competitors produced hackwork manuscripts in no way based on the composers autographs, in addition, Ricordis use of new techniques such as lithography and intaglio printing, he was able to reduce costs and increase the print runs. Finally, the company produced vocal scores and then complete scores, Ricordi befriended many major Italian operatic composers of his time, including Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi whose works he published. Ricordis correspondence with Verdi is studied to gain an insight into the latters activities. Notes Sources Gossett, Philip, Enter Giovanni Ricordi and Casa Ricordi, Transmissions, ISBN 0-226-30482-5 Macnutt, Richard, Ricordi in Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. Three, pp. 1317–1319. ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5 Other sources Fuld, James J, the Book of World-Famous Music, Classical, Popular, and Folk, Dover Publications. ISBN9780486284453 Jensen, L. Giuseppe Verdi and Giovanni Ricordi, with Notes on Francesco Lucca, ISBN 0-8240-5616-7 Giovanni Ricordi on giuseppeverdi. it The Ricordis — Casa Ricordi
16.
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
17.
Michael Costa (conductor)
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Sir Michael Andrew Angus Costa was an Italian-born conductor and composer who achieved success in England. He was born in Naples as Michele Andrea Agniello Costa and he studied in Naples with his father, at the Real Collegio di Musica, and later with Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli. In his youth, as throughout his life, he wrote a great quantity of music, including operas, symphonies and cantatas, in 1829 he visited Birmingham to conduct Zingarellis Cantata Sacra, a setting of some verses from Isaiah ch. xii. However, the committee would not allow him to conduct. Nonetheless he decided to settle in England, in 1830 he arrived in London, working at His Majestys Theatre. His concern for discipline, accuracy, and ensemble was a novelty in its time, despite this, he could not be claimed as a purist, his re-scoring of Handels Messiah includes a part for cymbals. Costa became a naturalized Englishman and received a knighthood in 1869 and he was conductor of the Philharmonic Society from 1846 to 1854, of the Sacred Harmonic Society from 1848, and of the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival from 1849-1882. He conducted at the Bradford and Handel festivals, and the Leeds Festivals from 1874 to 1880 and he also taught several musicians in England, including contralto Emma Albertazzi. He died in 1884 in Hove and was buried at Kensal Green and his home at 59 Eccleston Square in Pimlico, London, is commemorated with a blue plaque. Amongst the works of Costas maturity may be listed his ballets Kenilworth, Une Heure à Naples, Sir Huon in 1833 and his opera Malek Adhel was produced in Paris in 1837 and in London in 1844, as was his opera Don Carlos. In 1855 Costa wrote the oratorio Eli, and in 1864 Naaman, rossinis comment on the former was, The good Costa has sent me an oratorio score and a Stilton cheese. Media related to Michael Costa at Wikimedia Commons Free scores by Michael Costa at the International Music Score Library Project Blue Plaque for Costa, from Openplaques. org
18.
Teatro Comunale di Bologna
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The Teatro Comunale di Bologna is an opera house in Bologna, Italy, and is one of the most important opera venues in Italy. Typically, it presents eight operas with six performances during its November to April season, while there had been various theatres presenting opera in Bologna since the early 17th century, they had either fallen into disuse or burnt down. However, from the early 18th century, the Teatro Marsigli-Rossi had been presenting operatic works by composers of the day including Vivaldi, Gluck. However, much work remained unfinished, the facade in particular which was not completed until 1936, also, many of the backstage facilities which would allow for the presentations of operas were unfinished and only completed due to competition from another theatre in 1805. It was to be the first major house to be constructed with public funds. Various renovations were undertaken between 1818 and 1820 and also in 1853/54, after fire destroyed much of the stage area in 1931, the theatre was closed, and it did not re-open until 14 November 1935. By that date, the original bell-shaped auditorium had given way to a horseshoe-shaped one seating 1,034 people, the 19th century saw the presentation of twenty operas by Gioacchino Rossini, while seven of Vincenzo Bellinis ten operas were presented in the 1830s. Works by Giuseppe Verdi and, later in 1871, the Italian premiere of Richard Wagners Lohengrin, in fact, Bologna became the location for several other Wagner opera premieres in Italy, notably with the composer present for his Rienzi and the Parsifal premiere on 1 January 1914. Dottore Giulio Ferrario, ed. Storia e Descrizione de Principali Teatri Antichi e Moderni, tipografia del Dottor Giulio Ferrario, Contrada del Bocchetto N.2465. Lynn, Karyl Charna, Italian Opera Houses and Festivals, Lanham, Maryland, The Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0-8108-5359-0 Teatro Comunale of Bolognas website
19.
Angelo Mariani (conductor)
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Angelo Maurizio Gaspare Mariani was an Italian opera conductor and composer. He conducted at least two world premieres, and at least 4 Italian premieres, Angelo Mariani was born in Ravenna in 1821. He studied the violin at the Accademia Filarmonica of Ravenna, at age 15 he played in concerts in the Romagna. He then studied harmony and composition with a nobleman-priest, Girolamo Roberti, and then with a monk named Levrini, in 1843 he played the viola in an opera orchestra at Macerata and wrote two overtures, which were performed. He went to Faenza in 1844 as teacher and conductor at the Academy there, one of his overtures came to the attention of Gioachino Rossini, who had it performed. He then worked in Trento, Bologna and Messina, at Messina, the orchestra refused to play under him. He wrote pieces for the Messina Royal Orphanages brass band and for the Academy there, after further work in Naples, Bologna and Messina, in 1846 he had a fresh start as a conductor in Milan. He appeared first at the Teatro Re and then at the Teatro Carcano and he also conducted later at Stradella and Vicenza. He claimed to have abolished the system whereby an opera orchestra was conducted by a maestro concertatore at the cembalo. This may be led to his trouble in Messina. He had his first great success with Giuseppe Verdis I due Foscari and Nabucco, in September 1847 he conducted Giovanni Pacinis music for a performance of Sophocles Oedipus Rex, with a colossal chorus and orchestra. This led to his being appointed conductor of the Hofteatret in Copenhagen in November, while there, King Christian VIII of Denmark died, and Marianis Requiem Mass written for the late king was performed twice. Mariani returned to Italy after the revolution of March 1848 and enrolled in the volunteers, from there, he went to Constantinople, where he conducted the Italian Theatre for two years, in succession to Giuseppe Donizetti, the well-known composers brother. The National Hymn has been recorded, in December 1851 he returned to Messina for four months, before going to Naples, and then as conductor for the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. He intended to stay for two months, but his contract was made permanent, and he spent the majority of the rest of his life there. His reputation was now strong, and he was offered positions in such as Paris, Madrid, and Naples. He made the acquaintance of Verdi in around 1853, and they became firm friends, on 16 August 1857, he conducted the premiere performance of Verdis Aroldo, a reworking of his earlier opera Stiffelio, at the Teatro Nuovo in Rimini. Two years later, on 27 October 1867, the Italian premiere of Verdis Don Carlo was presented at the theatre with Marianis involvement
20.
Teatro Apollo
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The Tor di Nona is a neighborhood in Romes rione Ponte. It lies in the heart of the historic center, between the Via dei Coronari and the Tiber River. The Torre dellAnnona was a stronghold of the Orsini family and from the early 15th century. When the New Prison was built in Via Giulia, Tor di Nona was rebuilt in 1667 as a theatre patronized by Queen Christina of Sweden, in January 1671 Romes first public theatre opened in the former jail. Filippo Acciaiuoli was the first director, the new pope Clement X worried about the influence of theatre on public morals. When Innocent XI became pope, things turned even worse, he made Christinas theatre into a storeroom for grain and he forbade women to perform with song or acting, and the wearing of decolleté dresses. Christina considered this sheer nonsense, and let women perform in her palace, there are many perhaps unexecuted drawings for it by Carlo Fontana, bound in an album which passed into the hands of Scottish architect Robert Adam, now at Sir John Soanes Museum, London. As the Teatro Apollo, the largest lyric theater of Rome and it remains a going concern, presenting works by Luigi Pirandello and contemporary theater. At the end of the 19th century the neighborhood was destroyed because of the construction of the Lungotevere. The whole north side of the street was pulled down, including buildings like the Teatro Apollo, another blow came in the 1910s with the construction of via Zanardelli, which cut the thousand years link with Via di Monte Brianzo. This accelerated the decay of the quarter, which in the 1940s became part of a development plan as part of the fascist demolition strategy in Rome, as in Borgo and Via Giulia, this work was halted by World War II. During the last years of World War II, the Roman mercato nero was located in the Tor di Nona quarter, from that time until the present, the centre of Rome has been protected against further destruction. Roma Sotterranea, Fountain of Tor di Nona Romes Historical Districts, Rione V Sir John Soanes Museum, Concise Catalogue of Drawings
21.
La Scala
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La Scala is an opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was known as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala. The premiere performance was Antonio Salieris Europa riconosciuta, most of Italys greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala during the past 200 years. The theatre is regarded as one of the opera and ballet theatres in the world and is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet. The theatre also has a school, known as the La Scala Theatre Academy. La Scalas season traditionally opens on 7 December, Saint Ambroses Day, all performances must end before midnight, and long operas start earlier in the evening when necessary. La Scala also hosts the Accademia dArti e Mestieri dello Spettacolo and its goal is to train a new generation of young musicians, technical staff, and dancers. A fire destroyed the theatre, the Teatro Regio Ducale, on 25 February 1776. The neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini produced a design but it was rejected by Count Firmian. A second plan was accepted in 1776 by Empress Maria Theresa, the new theatre was built on the former location of the church of Santa Maria alla Scala, from which the theatre gets its name. The church was deconsecrated and demolished, and over a period of two years the theatre was completed by Pietro Marliani, Pietro Nosetti and Antonio and Giuseppe Fe. The theatre had a total of 3,000 or so seats organized into 678 pit-stalls and its stage is one of the largest in Italy. Building expenses were covered by the sale of palchi, which were decorated by their owners. La Scala soon became the preeminent meeting place for noble and wealthy Milanese people, in the tradition of the times, the platea had no chairs and spectators watched the shows standing up. The orchestra was in sight, as the golfo mistico had not yet been built. Above the boxes, La Scala has a gallery—called the loggione—where the less wealthy can watch the performances, the gallery is typically crowded with the most critical opera aficionados, known as the loggionisti, who can be ecstatic or merciless towards singers perceived successes or failures. As with most of the theatres at that time, La Scala was also a casino, conditions in the auditorium, too, could be frustrating for the opera lover, as Mary Shelley discovered in September 1840, At the Opera they were giving Otto Nicolais Templario. La Scala was originally illuminated with 84 oil lamps mounted on the palcoscenico, to prevent the risks of fire, several rooms were filled with hundreds of water buckets
22.
Naples
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Naples is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. In 2015, around 975,260 people lived within the administrative limits. The Metropolitan City of Naples had a population of 3,115,320, Naples is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million. About 4.4 million people live in the Naples metropolitan area, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, a larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. Naples was the most-bombed Italian city during World War II, much of the citys 20th-century periphery was constructed under Benito Mussolinis fascist government, and during reconstruction efforts after World War II. The city has experienced significant economic growth in recent decades, and unemployment levels in the city, however, Naples still suffers from political and economic corruption, and unemployment levels remain high. Naples has the fourth-largest urban economy in Italy, after Milan, Rome and it is the worlds 103rd-richest city by purchasing power, with an estimated 2011 GDP of US$83.6 billion. The port of Naples is one of the most important in Europe, numerous major Italian companies, such as MSC Cruises Italy S. p. A, are headquartered in Naples. The city also hosts NATOs Allied Joint Force Command Naples, the SRM Institution for Economic Research, Naples is a full member of the Eurocities network of European cities. The city was selected to become the headquarters of the European institution ACP/UE and was named a City of Literature by UNESCOs Creative Cities Network, the Villa Rosebery, one of the three official residences of the President of Italy, is located in the citys Posillipo district. Naples historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares and enclosing 27 centuries of history, Naples has long been a major cultural centre with a global sphere of influence, particularly during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. In the immediate vicinity of Naples are numerous culturally and historically significant sites, including the Palace of Caserta, culinarily, Naples is synonymous with pizza, which originated in the city. Neapolitan music has furthermore been highly influential, credited with the invention of the romantic guitar, according to CNN, the metro stop Toledo is the most beautiful in Europe and it won also the LEAF Award 2013 as Public building of the year. Naples is the Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, Naples sports scene is dominated by football and Serie A club S. S. C. Napoli, two-time Italian champions and winner of European trophies, who play at the San Paolo Stadium in the south-west of the city, the Phlegraean Fields around Naples has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The earliest Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, sailors from the Greek island of Rhodes established a small commercial port called Parthenope on the island of Megaride in the ninth century BC
23.
Antonio Ghislanzoni
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Ghislanzoni was born in Lecco, Lombardy, and studied briefly in a seminary, but was expelled for bad conduct in 1841. He then decided to study medicine in Pavia, but abandoned this after a time to pursue a singing career as a baritone. In 1848, stimulated by the nationalist ideas of Mazzini, Ghislanzoni founded several newspapers in Milan. While travelling to Rome, where he wanted to defend the nascent republic, Ghislanzoni was arrested by the French. He also founded Luomo di pietra the magazine Rivista minima, collaborating with, among others, in 1869, Ghislanzoni retired from journalism and returned to his native Lombardy, where he dedicated himself to literature and writing libretti for operas. He wrote many stories in verse and diverse novels including Un suicidio a fior dacqua, Angioli nelle tenebre, La contessa di Karolystria, Abracadabra. His novel of theatrical life Gli artisti da teatro, was republished into the 20th century and he also published musical essays, the most important being Reminiscenze artistiche. Ghislanzoni wrote some eighty-five libretti, including Edmea for Catalani, Aida, Fosca and Salvator Rosa for Gomes, I Lituani for Ponchielli and he also contributed a few verses to the revised translation into Italian of Verdis Don Carlos. Ghislanzoni died in Caprino Bergamasco, Bergamo in 1893 at age 69, Works by Antonio Ghislanzoni at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Antonio Ghislanzoni at Internet Archive Works by Antonio Ghislanzoni at LibriVox Scapigliatura
24.
Macbeth (opera)
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Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on William Shakespeares play of the same name. Written for the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, it was Verdis tenth opera, Macbeth was the first Shakespeare play that Verdi adapted for the operatic stage. Almost twenty years later, Macbeth was revised and expanded in a French version, after the success of Attila in 1846, by which time the composer had become well established, Macbeth came before the great successes of 1850 to 1853 which propelled him into universal fame. The first version of Macbeth was completed during the time which Verdi described as his years, which ranged over a period of 16 years. By the standards of the matter of almost all Italian operas during the first fifty years of the 19th century. The 1847 version was successful and it was presented widely. It was less successful, and the opera largely faded from view until the mid-20th century revivals. He only started working on Macbeth in September 1846, the reason for that choice being the availability of a particular singer. With Varesi under contract, Verdi could focus on the music for Macbeth, (Maffei was already writing a libretto for I masnadieri, which was based on the suggested Schiller play, but it could have been substituted for Macbeth had the baritone not been available. As a result of complications, including Verdis illness, that work was not to receive its premiere until July 1847. Piaves text was based on a translation by Carlo Rusconi that had been published in Turin in 1838. I have had him in my hands from my earliest youth, writing to Piave, Verdi made it clear how important this subject was to him. This tragedy is one of the greatest creations of man. If we cant make something out of it let us at least try to do something out of the ordinary. In spite of disagreements and Verdis need to constantly bully Piave into correcting his drafts, their version follows Shakespeares play quite closely, instead of using three witches as in the play, there is a large female chorus of witches, singing in three part harmony. The last act begins with an assembly of refugees on the English border, as early as 1852 Verdi was asked by Paris to revise his existing Macbeth in that city. However, nothing transpired but, again in 1864, Verdi was asked to provide additional music - a ballet, so began a revision of the original version of 1847 over the winter of 1864/65. Was a typical reaction to a first draft—in this case it was of Lady Macbeths new act 2 aria La luce langue, the result of which was from Verdis insistence came Lady Macbeths gripping scene. If all these specific demands which were placed on Piave were not enough, some relate to crucial elements in the drama, especially how Banquos appearances as a ghost should be presented
25.
La forza del destino
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La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. It was first performed in the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of Saint Petersburg, Russia, La forza del destino is frequently performed, and there have been a number of complete recordings. In addition, the overture is part of the repertoire for orchestras. After its premiere in Russia, La Forza underwent some revisions, performances followed in Madrid and the opera subsequently travelled to New York, Vienna, Buenos Aires, and London. Following these productions, Verdi made further, more revisions to the opera with additions to the libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. This version, which premiered at La Scala, Milan, on 27 February 1869, has become the performance version. Critical editions of all versions of the opera have been prepared by musicologist Philip Gossett of the University of Chicago, the Caramoor International Music Festival gave a concert performance of the critical edition of the 1862 version, plus never-performed vocal pieces from the 1861 version, in July 2008. 2 flutes,2 oboes,2 clarinets,2 bassoons,4 horns,2 trumpets,3 trombones, cimbasso, timpani, percussion,2 harps, onstage, organ,6 trumpets,4 side drums. Place, Spain and Italy Time, around 1750 The music begins with the operas Fate motif, an ominous three Es unison in the brass. The mansion of Leonoras family, in Seville Don Alvaro is a nobleman from South America who is part Indian. He falls in love with Donna Leonora, the daughter of the Marquis of Calatrava, despite knowing her father’s aversion to Alvaro, Leonora is deeply in love with him, and she determines to give up her home and country in order to elope with him. In this endeavor, she is aided by her confidante, Curra, however, the Marquis unexpectedly enters and discovers Leonora and Alvaro together. He threatens Alvaro with death, and in order to any suspicion as to Leonora’s purity. As he flings down his pistol, it goes off, mortally wounding the Marquis who dies cursing his daughter. Scene 1, An inn in the village of Hornachuelos The Alcalde, several peasant muleteers, and Don Carlo of Vargas, Don Carlo, disguised as a student of Salamanca, under the fictitious name of Pereda, is seeking revenge against Alvaro and Leonora. During the supper, Preziosilla, a gypsy, tells the young men’s fortunes and exhorts them to enlist in the war for Italy’s freedom. Having become separated from Alvaro, Leonora arrives in male attire, scene 2, A monastery nearby Leonora takes refuge in the monastery where she tells the abbot, Padre Guardiano, her true name and that she intends to spend the remainder of her life in a hermitage. The abbot recounts the trials she will have to undergo, Leonora, Padre Guardiano, Fra Melitone, and the other monks join in prayer
26.
Aida
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Aida is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in Egypt, it was commissioned by and first performed at Cairos Khedivial Opera House on 24 December 1871, ghislanzonis scheme follows a scenario often attributed to the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, but Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz argues that the source is actually Temistocle Solera. Aida eventually premiered in Cairo in late 1871, contrary to popular belief, the opera was not written to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, for which Verdi had been invited to write an inaugural hymn, but had declined. The plot bears striking, though similarities to Metastasios libretto La Nitteti. Verdi originally chose to write an orchestral prelude instead of a full overture for the opera. He then composed an overture of the variety to replace the original prelude. However, in the end he decided not to have the overture performed because of its—his own words—pretentious insipidity and this overture, never used today, was given a rare broadcast performance by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra on 30 March 1940, but was never commercially issued. Aida met with acclaim when it finally opened in Cairo on 24 December 1871. He therefore considered the Italian premiere, held at La Scala, Milan on 8 February 1872, Verdi had also written the role of Aida for the voice of Teresa Stolz, who sang it for the first time at the Milan premiere. Verdi had asked her fiancé, Angelo Mariani, to conduct the Cairo premiere, the Milan Amneris, Maria Waldmann, was his favourite in the role and she repeated it a number of times at his request. Aida was received with enthusiasm at its Milan premiere. With Polish translation Aida was performed for the first time 9 June 1877, france,22 April 1876, Théâtre-Lyrique Italien, Salle Ventadour, Paris, with almost the same cast as the Milan premiere, but with Édouard de Reszke making his debut as the King. Rio de Janeiro,30 June 1886, Theatro Lyrico Fluminense, Arturo Toscanini, at the time a 19-year-old cellist who was assistant chorus master, was persuaded to take up the baton for the performance. Toscanini conducted the opera from memory, with great success. This would be the start of a promising career, laibach, Austrian Empire,1 October 1898, conducted by Hilarion Benišek A complete concert version of the opera was given in New York City in 1949. Conducted by Toscanini with Herva Nelli as Aida and Richard Tucker as Radamès, due to the length of the opera, it was divided into two telecasts, preserved on kinescopes, and later released on video by RCA and Testament. The audio portion of the broadcast, including some remakes in June 1954, was released on LP, La Scala mounted a lavish new production of Aida designed by Franco Zeffirelli for the opening night of its 2006/2007 season. The production starred Violeta Urmana in the role and Roberto Alagna as Radamès
27.
Giulio Ricordi
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Upon his fathers death in 1888, Giulio became the head of the company until his death. With the nickname Jules Burgmein, Ricordi contributed a great deal to the prestige of the Casa Ricordi as it also produced several magazines. Ricordi was also publisher of the operas by Giuseppe Verdi. In 1853, Ricordi built a mansion, Villa Margherita Ricordi, but he also had the good sense to promote younger composers of merit. These included Amilcare Ponchielli, Alfredo Catalani, Carlos Gomes, Umberto Giordano, to Puccini in particular, he became something of a father-figure, feared but deeply trusted. Works by or about Giulio Ricordi at Internet Archive Free scores by Giulio Ricordi at the International Music Score Library Project
28.
The Royal Opera
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The Royal Opera is a company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known by that title until 1968 and it brought a long annual season and consistent management to a house that had previously hosted short seasons under a series of impresarios. Since its inception, it has shared the Royal Opera House with the company now known as The Royal Ballet. When the company was formed, its policy was to all works in English. Among the many guest performers have been Maria Callas, Plácido Domingo, Kirsten Flagstad, Hans Hotter, Birgit Nilsson, Luciano Pavarotti and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Among those who have risen to prominence from the ranks of the company are Geraint Evans, Joan Sutherland, Kiri Te Kanawa. The companys growth under the management of David Webster from modest beginnings to parity with the worlds greatest opera houses was recognised by the grant of the title The Royal Opera in 1968, the 21st century has seen a stable managerial regime once more in place. The company has had six directors since its inception, Karl Rankl, Rafael Kubelík, Georg Solti, Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink. From the mid-19th century, opera had been presented on the site of Covent Gardens Royal Opera House, after a fire, the new building opened in 1858 with The Royal English Opera company, which moved there from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Pre-war opera was described by the historian Montague Haltrecht as international, dressy, during the war, the Royal Opera House was leased by its owners, Covent Garden Properties Ltd, to Mecca Ballrooms who used it profitably as a dance hall. Towards the end of the war, the owners approached the music publishers Boosey, Boosey and Hawkes took a lease, and granted a sub-lease at generous terms to a not-for-profit charitable trust established to run the operation. The chairman of the trust was Lord Keynes, there was some pressure for a return to the pre-war regime of starry international seasons. Sir Thomas Beecham, who had presented many Covent Garden seasons between 1910 and 1939 confidently expected to do so again after the war and it was widely assumed that this aim would be met by inviting the existing Sadlers Wells Opera Company to become resident at the Royal Opera House. Webster successfully extended just such an invitation to the Sadlers Wells Ballet Company and he was determined to set up a new opera company of his own. The British government had begun to give funds to subsidise the arts, and Webster negotiated an ad hoc grant of £60,000. Websters first priority was to appoint a director to build the company from scratch. He negotiated with Bruno Walter and Eugene Goossens, but neither of those conductors was willing to consider a company with no leading international stars
29.
Luchino Visconti
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Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo, was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice, Luchino Visconti was born into a prominent noble family in Milan, one of seven children of Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone, Duke of Grazzano Visconti and Count of Lonate Pozzolo, and his wife Carla. He was formally known as Count don Luchino Visconti di Modrone, during World War II, Visconti joined the Italian Communist Party. Visconti made no secret of his homosexuality and his last partner was the Austrian actor Helmut Berger, who played Martin in Viscontis film The Damned. Berger also appeared in Viscontis Ludwig in 1972 and Conversation Piece in 1974, Visconti suffered a stroke in 1972, but continued to smoke heavily. He died in Rome of another stroke at the age of 69, there is a museum dedicated to the directors work in Ischia. He began his career as an assistant director on Jean Renoirs Toni and Partie de campagne, thanks to the intercession of their common friend. Together with Roberto Rossellini, Visconti joined the salotto of Vittorio Mussolini, here he presumably also met Federico Fellini. In 1948, he wrote and directed La terra trema, based on the novel I Malavoglia by Giovanni Verga, Visconti continued working throughout the 1950s, although he veered away from the neorealist path with his 1954 film, Senso, shot in colour. Based on the novella by Camillo Boito, it is set in Austrian-occupied Venice in 1866, in this film, Visconti combines realism and romanticism as a way to break away from neorealism. However, as one biographer notes, Visconti without neorealism is like Lang without expressionism and he describes the film as the most Viscontian of all Viscontis films. Visconti returned to once more with Rocco e i suoi fratelli. In 1961, he was a member of the jury at the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival, throughout the 1960s, Viscontis films became more personal. Il Gattopardo, is based on Lampedusas novel of the name about the decline of the Sicilian aristocracy at the time of the Risorgimento. It starred American actor Burt Lancaster in the role of Prince Don Fabrizio and this film was distributed in America and Britain by Twentieth-Century Fox, which deleted important scenes. Visconti repudiated the Twentieth-Century Fox version and it was not until The Damned that Visconti received a nomination for an Academy Award, for Best Screenplay. The film, one of Viscontis best-known works, concerns a German industrialists family which slowly begins to disintegrate during the Nazi consolidation of power in the 30s and its decadence and lavish beauty are characteristic of Viscontis aesthetic. Viscontis final film was The Innocent, in which he returns to his recurring interest in infidelity, Visconti was also a celebrated theatre and opera director
30.
Tito Gobbi
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Tito Gobbi was an Italian operatic baritone with an international reputation. He made his debut in Gubbio in 1935 as Count Rodolfo in Bellinis La sonnambula. By the time he retired in 1979 he had acquired a repertoire of almost 100 operatic roles and they ranged from Rossinis Barber through Donizetti and the standard Verdi and Puccini baritone roles to Alban Bergs Wozzeck. Gobbi and Tilda had a daughter, Cecilia, who now runs the Associazione Musicale Tito Gobbi and he was also the brother-in-law of one of his famous colleagues at Covent Garden, the Bulgarian-born bass, Boris Christoff. Gobbi retired in 1979 and died in Rome in 1984, aged 70, Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa. He began his studies in law at the University of Padua and, during time, his talent was discovered by a family friend, Baron Agostino Zanchetta. Accompanying Gobbi on the piano at his first audition was Tilde De Rensis, in 1937, she became his wife. After his 1935 debut in Gubbio singing the role of Count Rodolfo in Vincenzo Bellinis La sonnambula, in 1937 he sang Germont in La traviata for the first time in Rome at Teatro Adriano. But working at La Scala in Milan for the 1935–1936 season as an understudy, gave him a breadth of experience, in 1942, he debuted at the house in the role of Belcore in Donizettis Lelisir damore conducted by Tullio Serafin. He also appeared at the Rome Opera from 1938 onward in stage such as singing the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly under conductor Victor de Sabata. Other significant Italian venues in these years included La Fenice in Venice where, in 1941 he appeared as Marcello in La bohème. In Rome in 1942 he performed his first Falstaff at La Scala under de Sabata and and these performances made him famous in the first Italian performances of Bergs opera. He sang the role later in Italy and in Vienna under Karl Böhm. During these years, Gobbi also kept working in films. Gobbis international career blossomed after World War II, with appearances in 1948 at the San Francisco Opera and he performed for the first time at Londons Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1950 and sang with the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1954 until 1974. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1956 as Scarpia in Tosca, there was, however, one incident in his relationship with Covent Garden which caused a stir. In 1955 he had engaged as Iago in a major new production of Verdis Otello but was delayed in reaching the theatre for rehearsal. The new music director, Rafael Kubelík, determined to impose discipline on singers, the company baritone Otakar Kraus, already scheduled to sing some performances, took on all of them
31.
Boris Christoff
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Boris Christoff was a Bulgarian opera singer, widely considered one of the greatest basses of the 20th century. Born in Plovdiv, Christoff demonstrated early his talent and sang as a boy at the choir of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. In the late 1930s he graduated in law and started a career as a magistrate and he continued singing in his spare time in the Gusla Chorus in Sofia, achieving an enormous success as the chorus soloist in 1940. After several guest appearances and recitals in Austria in 1944 and 1945 and he made his operatic debut as Colline in La bohème at Reggio Calabria on 12 March 1946. The role was filled by the young Italian basso, Cesare Siepi. After the restrictions were loosened, Christoff made a debut in the United States in 1956 at the San Francisco Opera. He refused any further invitations to the Metropolitan and never appeared there, after a brief absence from the scene due to brain tumour surgery in 1964, Christoff resumed his career in 1965, though at a much slower pace. In 1967 he was allowed to return to Bulgaria for the first time since 1945, in the 1970s Christoff on-stage performances were all but frequent. He brought his career to an end with a concert at the Accademia di Bulgaria in Rome on 22 June 1986. He died in Rome in 1993 and his body was returned to Bulgaria, Christoff had an excellent voice with a distinctive dark tone. Although it was not as large as some other bass voices, he had no trouble making an impact in big auditoria and he sang mostly in Verdi and the Russian repertoire, and was also a refined performer of vocal chamber music. Christoff made studio recordings of eight operas and numerous live recordings and he initiated the tradition of making studio recordings of Boris Godunov with the same basso singing three roles. While he was a performer on stage, Christoff had difficult off-stage relations with fellow singers and producers. Herbert von Karajan tried to make him sing the role in Don Giovanni which would have been inappropriate for his range. He was the brother-in-law of the Italian baritone Tito Gobbi, the following list contains just a few. His complete songs by Mussorgsky are available, produced by EMI and he recorded the Verdi Requiem 3 times, once under Tullio Serafin in Rome 1959, once with Herbert von Karajan and once with Bruno Bartoletti. Two recordings of Boris Godunov are available with Christoff singing three roles, Boris, Pimen, and Father Varlaam, lugano Recital 1976 Sonning Award Boris Christoff at the Internet Movie Database Borischristoff. dir. bg Discography of opera recordings http, //www. boris-christoff. Warren Perry Photo Collection, University of Buffalo Digital Collections, State University of New York at Buffalo
32.
Georg Solti
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Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and his career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis, and being of Jewish background he fled the increasingly restrictive anti-semitic laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist. After the war, Solti was appointed director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1946. In 1952 he moved to the Frankfurt Opera, where he remained in charge for nine years and he took West German citizenship in 1953. In 1961 he became director of the Covent Garden Opera Company. During his ten-year tenure, he introduced changes that raised standards to the highest international levels, under his musical directorship the status of the company was recognised with the grant of the title the Royal Opera. He became a British citizen in 1972, in 1969 Solti became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for 22 years. He relinquished the position in 1991 and became the music director laureate. Known in his early years for the intensity of his music making and he recorded many works two or three times at various stages of his career, and was a prolific recording artist, making more than 250 recordings, including 45 complete opera sets. The most famous of his recordings is probably Deccas complete set of Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen, Soltis Ring has twice been voted the greatest recording ever made, in polls for Gramophone magazine in 1999 and the BBCs Music Magazine in 2012. Solti was repeatedly honoured by the industry with awards throughout his career. Solti also received the Academy’s 1995 Lifetime Achievement Award, Solti was born György Stern on Maros utca, in the Hegyvidék district of the Buda side of Budapest. He was the younger of the two children of Móricz Stern and his wife Teréz, née Rosenbaum, both of whom were Jewish, in the aftermath of the First World War it became the accepted practice in Hungary for citizens with Germanic surnames to adopt Hungarian ones. The right wing regime of Admiral Horthy enacted a series of Hungarianisation laws, Mor Stern, a self-employed merchant, felt no need to change his surname, but thought it prudent to change that of his children. He renamed them after Solt, a town in central Hungary. His sons given name, György, was acceptably Hungarian and was not changed, Solti described his father as a kind, sweet man who trusted everyone. He shouldnt have, but he did, jews in Hungary were tremendously patriotic
33.
Carlo Maria Giulini
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Carlo Maria Giulini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian conductor. Initially, he studied the viola and conducting, then, following an audition, as the war was ending, he hid until the liberation to avoid continuing to fight alongside the Germans. While in hiding, he married his girlfriend, Marcella, after the 1944 liberation, he was invited to lead what was then known as the Augusteo Orchestra in its first post-Fascist concert, and quickly other conducting opportunities came along. These included some of the major orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Londons Philharmonia Orchestra. His career spanned 54 years with retirement coming in 1998 and he died in Brescia, Italy, at 91 years of age. Giulini was born in Barletta, Kingdom of Italy, to a father born in Lombardy and a born in Naples, but he was raised in Bolzano. Therefore, most of the neighbors spoke a dialect of German, and he recalled being transfixed by the town band. For Christmas in 1919, when he was five, Giulini was given a violin and he progressed rapidly with local instructors, Giulini undertook his studies there two years later, at the age of 16. He studied viola with Principe, composition with Alessandro Bustini, at the age of 18, in order to supplement his familys income, he auditioned for the viola section of the Orchestra dellAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, at the time Italys foremost orchestra. He recalled crying for joy when informed that he had won the audition, among the guest conductors he played under were Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Richard Strauss, Victor de Sabata, Fritz Reiner, Pierre Monteux, Igor Stravinsky, and Otto Klemperer. His first public performance was the First Symphony of Brahms under Walter, however, because of his commitment to pacifism and intense opposition to fascism and to Benito Mussolini, he did not fire his gun at human targets. In 1942, on a 30-day break in Rome, he married Marcella de Girolami, his girlfriend since 1938, posters around Rome with his face and name instructed that he be shot on sight. On the program was the Brahms Symphony No,4, which he had studied while in hiding. It became the work he conducted most frequently over the course of his career, Giulini began working with the Chamber Orchestra of Rome in 1944, and was made its music director in 1946. Also in 1944 he became assistant conductor of the RAI Orchestra in Rome, Four years later he was involved in the founding of the Milan Radio Orchestra, working with them from 1946 to 1954, as well as with the RAIs Rome orchestra. Although he conducted La traviata for Italian radio in 1948, conducting his first staged opera came in 1950 in Bergamo and it was La traviata and he returned the following year, this time with Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi alternating in the role of Violetta. Also, he revived several obscure operas, including works by Alessandro Scarlatti and his work in Bergamo came to the attention of Arturo Toscanini, when the latter heard his radio broadcast of Debussys La mer. Toscanini asked to meet the conductor, and the two men formed a deep bond
34.
Charles Mackerras
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Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras AC CH CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and he was long associated with the English National Opera and Welsh National Opera and was the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Mackerras was born in Schenectady, New York, to Australian parents, Alan Mackerras and his father was an electrical engineer and a Quaker. In 1928, when Charles was aged two, the returned to Sydney, Australia. They initially lived in the suburb of Vaucluse, and in 1933 they moved to the then suburb of Turramurra. Mackerras was the eldest of seven children and his siblings were Alastair, Neil, Joan, Elisabeth and twins Malcolm and Colin. They are descendants of the pioneer Australian musician Isaac Nathan, Mackerras studied violin at the age of seven and later the flute. He was setting poems to music at eight and wrote a piano concerto when he was 12, Mackerras initially attended his fathers alma mater, Sydney Grammar School, and also St Aloysius College in Sydney. While at Sydney Grammar, he showed a talent by composing operas and conducting student performances in his early teens. At all-male St Aloysius, he participated in the schools Gilbert and Sullivan productions, playing the roles of Kate in The Pirates of Penzance, Leila in Iolanthe and Ko-Ko in The Mikado. Unconvinced that music was a profession, his parents removed the young Mackerras from temptation by sending him to board at The Kings School. The schools focus on sport and discipline led the young artist to run several times. At age 16, Mackerras studied oboe, piano and composition at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music and he earned additional income from writing orchestral scores from recordings. From 1941 to 1942, Mackerras played the oboe for the J. C. Williamson Company during one of their Gilbert and Sullivan seasons, in 1943, Mackerras joined the ABC Sydney Orchestra, under Malcolm Sargent, as second oboist and at age 19, became principal oboist. On 6 February 1947, Mackerras sailed for England on the RMS Rangitiki intending to pursue conducting and he joined Sadlers Wells Theatre as an orchestral oboist and cor anglais player. He later won a British Council Scholarship, enabling him to study conducting with Václav Talich at the Prague Academy of Music, in August 1947, shortly before the couple set off for Prague, Mackerras married Judy Wilkins, a clarinettist at Sadlers Wells. They had two daughters, Fiona and Catherine, Fiona died of cancer in September 2006. He was also the uncle of the Australian conductor Alexander Briger, in his 1965 performance of The Marriage of Figaro, he added the ornamentation in a historically informed style
35.
English National Opera
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English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martins Lane. It is one of the two opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. ENOs productions are sung in English, Baylis subsequently built up both the opera and the theatre companies, and later added a ballet company, these evolved into ENO, the Royal National Theatre and The Royal Ballet, respectively. Baylis acquired and rebuilt the Sadlers Wells theatre in north London, the opera company grew there into a permanent ensemble in the 1930s. During the Second World War, the theatre was closed and the company toured British towns, after the war, the company returned to its home, but it continued to expand and improve. By the 1960s, a theatre was needed. In 1968, the moved to the London Coliseum and adopted its present name in 1974. Among the conductors associated with the company have been Colin Davis, Reginald Goodall, Charles Mackerras, Mark Elder, the current music director of ENO is Martyn Brabbins. Noted directors who have staged productions at ENO have included David Pountney, Jonathan Miller, Nicholas Hytner, Phyllida Lloyd, ENOs current artistic director is Daniel Kramer. In addition to the operatic repertoire, the company has presented a wide range of works, from early operas by Monteverdi to new commissions, operetta. In 1889, Emma Cons, a Victorian philanthropist who ran the Old Vic theatre in a area of London. Although the theatre licensing laws of the day prevented full costumed performances, Cons presented condensed versions of well-known operas, among the performers were noted singers such as Charles Santley. These operatic evenings quickly became more popular than the dramas that Cons had been staging separately, in 1898, she recruited her niece Lilian Baylis to help run the theatre. At the same time she appointed Charles Corri as the Old Vics musical director, Baylis and Corri, despite many disagreements, shared a passionate belief in popularising opera, hitherto generally the preserve of the rich and fashionable. They worked on a budget, with an amateur chorus. By the early years of the 20th century, the Old Vic was able to present semi-staged versions of Wagner operas, Emma Cons died in 1912, leaving her estate, including the Old Vic, to Baylis, who dreamed of transforming the theatre into a peoples opera house. In the same year, Baylis obtained a licence to allow the Old Vic to stage performances of operas. In the 1914–1915 season, Baylis staged 16 operas and 16 plays, the opera, however, remained her first priority
