1.
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
2.
Campania
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Campania is a region in Southern Italy. Located on the Italian Peninsula, with the Mediterranean Sea to the west, it includes the small Phlegraean Islands, Campania was colonised by Ancient Greeks and was part of Magna Græcia. During the Roman era, the area maintained a Greco-Roman culture, the capital city of Campania is Naples. Campania is rich in culture, especially in regard to gastronomy, music, architecture, archeological and ancient sites such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum and Velia. The name of Campania itself is derived from Latin, as the Romans knew the region as Campania felix, the rich natural sights of Campania make it highly important in the tourism industry, especially along the Amalfi Coast, Mount Vesuvius and the island of Capri. During the 8th century BC, people from Euboea in Greece, known as Cumaeans, another Oscan tribe, the Samnites, moved down from central Italy into Campania. The Roman consul Quintus Publilius Filo recaptured Neapolis by 326 BC, the Second Samnite War ended with the Romans controlling southern Campania and additional regions further to the south. Campania was a part of the Roman Republic by the end of the 4th century BC, valued for its pastures. Its Greek language and customs made it a centre of Hellenistic civilization, during the Pyrrhic War the battle took place in Campania at Maleventum in which the Romans, led by consul Curius Dentatus, were victorious. They renamed the city Beneventum, which grew in stature until it was only to Capua in southern Italy. During the Second Punic War in 216 BC, Capua, in a bid for equality with Rome, the rebellious Capuans were isolated from the rest of Campania, which remained allies of Rome. Naples resisted Hannibal due to the imposing walls, Capua was eventually starved into submission in the Roman retaking of 211 BC, and the Romans were victorious. The rest of Campania, with the exception of Naples, adopted the Latin language as official and was Romanised. As part of the Roman Empire, Campania, with Latium, Roman Emperors chose Campania as a holiday destination, among them Claudius and Tiberius, the latter of whom is infamously linked to the island of Capri. It was also during this period that Christianity came to Campania, Two of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, are said to have preached in the city of Naples, and there were also several martyrs during this time. Unfortunately, the period of calm was violently interrupted by the epic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 which buried the cities of Pompeii. The area had many duchies and principalities during the Middle Ages, in the hands of the Byzantine Empire, under the Normans, the smaller independent states were brought together as part of the Kingdom of Sicily, before the mainland broke away to form the Kingdom of Naples. It was during this period elements of Spanish, French
3.
Kingdom of Italy
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The state was founded as a result of the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which can be considered its legal predecessor state. Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866, Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations. Fascist Italy is the era of National Fascist Party rule from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as head of government, according to Payne, Fascist regime passed through several relatively distinct phases. The first phase was nominally a continuation of the parliamentary system, then came the second phase, the construction of the Fascist dictatorship proper from 1925 to 1929. The third phase, with activism, was 1929–34. The war itself was the phase with its disasters and defeats. Italy was allied with Nazi Germany in World War II until 1943 and it switched sides to the Allies after ousting Mussolini and shutting down the Fascist party in areas controlled by the Allied invaders. Shortly after the war, civil discontent led to the referendum of 1946 on whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Italians decided to abandon the monarchy and form the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of Italy claimed all of the territory which is modern-day Italy. The development of the Kingdoms territory progressed under Italian re-unification until 1870, the state for a long period of time did not include Trieste or Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which are in Italy today, and only annexed them in 1919. After the Second World War, the borders of present-day Italy were founded, the Kingdom of Italy was theoretically a constitutional monarchy. Executive power belonged to the monarch, as executed through appointed ministers, two chambers of parliament restricted the monarchs power—an appointive Senate and an elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdoms constitution was the Statuto Albertino, the governing document of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers were responsible to the king. However, in practice, it was impossible for an Italian government to stay in office without the support of Parliament, members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected by plurality voting system elections in uninominal districts. A candidate needed the support of 50% of those voting, and of 25% of all enrolled voters, if not all seats were filled on the first ballot, a runoff was held shortly afterwards for the remaining vacancies. After a brief multinominal experimentation in 1882, proportional representation into large, regional, Socialists became the major party, but they were unable to form a government in a parliament split into three different factions, with Christian Populists and classical liberals
4.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
5.
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
6.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
7.
Province of Benevento
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The Province of Benevento is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Benevento, the province has an area of 2,071 km², and a total population of 316,464. There are 78 comuni in the province, the biggest municipalities, the only ones over 10,000 inhabitants, are Benevento, Montesarchio, SantAgata de Goti and San Giorgio del Sannio. The territory of the province of Benevento closely approximates that of the Principality of Benevento in the mid and it borders Molise on the North, Apulia on the East, the province of Avellino and that of Napoli on the South, and the province of Caserta on the West. The lowest point is in the comune of Limatola, while the highest point is Monte Mutria, one of the mountains of the Matese range, which separates the province of Benevento from Molise
8.
Piedimonte Matese
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Piedimonte Matese Italian, Piedimonte Matese, pronounced is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region of Campania, located about 82 km north of Naples and about 40 km north of Caserta. Piedimonte Matese borders the municipalities, Alife, Campochiaro, Castello del Matese, Cusano Mutri, Guardiaregia, San Gregorio Matese, San Potito Sannitico. Up until 1945, Piedimonte Matese was located within the Province of Benevento, before 1970 Piedimonte was known as Piedimonte dAlife. The church of San Biagio houses late-Gothic frescoes with scenes from the Old and New Testament, the church of St. Thomas was built in 1414. The Baroque church of San Salvatore was designed by Cosimo Fanzago, the Ducal Palace of Gaetani dAragona has kept some late Renaissance details. Its patron saint is San Marcellino, the Civic Museum Raffaele Marrocco is an archaeology and arts museum in Piedimonte Matese. Based in the Sepicciano area of Piedimonte Matese is the 4, 000-seater Stadio Pasqualino Ferrante, tre Pini Matese and Promozione side F. W. P. Piedimonte Matese is twinned with, Cervinara in Italy Seligenstadt in Germany Piedimonte Matese 2010
9.
Province of Caserta
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The Province of Caserta is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Caserta, situated about 36 kilometres by road north of Naples, the province has an area of 2,639 square kilometres, and a total population of 906,596 as of 2012. The former Palace of Caserta is located near to the city and it was the largest palace and one of the largest buildings erected in Europe during the 18th century. In 1997, the palace was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Caserta was one of the most important departments in southern Italy. The first capital of the region was the ancient city of Capua until 1818, in addition to Naples, the most important centers were Caserta, Capua, Nola, Gaeta, Sora, Aversa, Teano, and Isola Liri. In 1816, during the French occupation, Joseph Bonaparte reformed the territorial division of the kingdom of Naples, a series of royal decrees completed the reforms, introducing local administrative units or communes like the French ones. The new Napoleonic reforms led to the establishment of the Province of Naples, in 1945, a Decree signed by Umberto di Savoia reconstituted the Province of Caserta, and finally in 1970, the modern province came into being. To the northeast, near the Matese mountains is the Lago del Matese, the highest point is Monte Miletto at 2,050 m, divided between Campania and Molise. The karst massif is rich in water and minerals, and contains many caves, the Volturno River flows through the centre of the province with a defensive outpost at Capua. The southern highlands of Caserta border the Province of Benevento, there are 104 comuni in the province, Official website
10.
Southern Italy
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It generally coincides with the administrative regions of Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, Calabria, Molise, Sicily, and Sardinia. Some also include the most southern and eastern parts of Lazio within the Mezzogiorno, Southern Italy carries a unique legacy of culture. It features many major tourist attractions, such as the Palace of Caserta, there are also many ancient Greek cities in Southern Italy, such as Sybaris, which were founded several centuries before the start of the Roman Republic. These same subdivisions are at the bottom of the Italian First level NUTS of the European Union, the term Mezzogiorno first came into use in the 18th century and is an Italian rendition of meridies. The term was popularised by Giuseppe Garibaldi and it eventually came into vogue after the Italian unification. In a similar manner, Southern France is colloquially known as le Midi, Southern Italy forms the lower part of the Italian boot, containing the ankle, the toe, the arch, and the heel, along with the island of Sicily. Separating the heel and the boot is the Gulf of Taranto, named after the city of Taranto and it is an arm of the Ionian Sea. The island of Sardinia, right below the French island of Corsica, on the eastern coast is the Adriatic Sea, leading into the rest of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Otranto. Along the northern coast of the Salernitan Gulf and on the south of the Sorrentine Peninsula runs the Amalfi Coast, off the tip of the peninsula is the isle of Capri. The climate is mainly Mediterranean, except at the highest elevations and the eastern stretches in Apulia, along the Ionian Sea in Calabria. The largest city of Southern Italy is Naples, a name from the Greek that it has maintained for millennia. Bari, Taranto, Reggio Calabria, Foggia, and Salerno are the next largest cities in the area. The region is very active and highly seismic, the 1980 Irpinia earthquake killed 2,914 people, injured more than 10,000. Also during this period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea, Eastern Libya and they included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of Italy, Magna Graecia, the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria—Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions. With this colonisation, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites, an original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic and Latin civilisations. Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like Neapolis, Syracuse, Acragas, other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum, Epizephyrian Locri, Rhegium, Croton, Thurii, Elea, Nola, Syessa, Bari, and others. After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BCE, from then to the Norman conquest of the 11th century, the south of the peninsula was constantly plunged into wars between Greece, Lombardy, and the Islamic Caliphate
11.
Neapolitan language
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Neapolitan is the language of much of southern continental Italy, including the city of Naples. It is not named after the city but rather the Kingdom of Naples, on October 14,2008, a law by the Region of Campania stated that Neapolitan was to be protected. Neapolitan was originally derived from Latin, but later influenced by the Spanish, French, Neapolitan has had a significant influence on the intonation of Rioplatense Spanish, of the Buenos Aires region of Argentina, and the whole of Uruguay. In western Abruzzo and Lazio the dialects give way to Central Italian dialects such as Romanesco, in central Calabria and southern Apulia, the dialects give way to the Sicilian language. However, in the United States traditional Neapolitan has had contact with English. English words are used in place of Neapolitan words, especially among second-generation speakers. There are notable differences among the dialects, but they are all generally mutually intelligible. The Italian language and Neapolitan are of variable mutual comprehensibility, depending on factors both affective and linguistic, there are notable grammatical differences such as nouns in the neuter form and unique plural formation, and historical phonological developments that often obscure the cognacy of lexical items. Its evolution has been similar to that of Italian and other Romance languages from their roots in Vulgar Latin. It may reflect a pre-Latin Oscan influence in the pronunciation of the d sound as an r sound, another purported Oscan influence is historical assimilation of the consonant cluster /nd/ as /nn/, pronounced, along with the development of /mb/ as /mm/, also consistently reflected in spelling. Other effects of the Oscan substratum are postulated too, although claims are highly controversial. In addition, the language was affected by the Greek language. There have never been any successful attempts to standardize the language, Neapolitan has enjoyed a rich literary, musical and theatrical history. The language has no status within Italy and is not taught in schools. There are also ongoing legislative attempts at the level to have it recognized as an official minority language of Italy. It is however a recognized ISO639 Joint Advisory Committee language with the code of nap. For comparison, The Lords Prayer is reproduced in the Neapolitan spoken in Naples and in a northern Calabrian dialect, in contrast with a variety of southern Calabrian, Italian and Latin. The Neapolitan alphabet, like the Italian alphabet, is almost the same as the English alphabet except that it consists of only 22 letters and it does not contain k, w, x, or y even though these letters might be found in some foreign words
12.
Antonio Scotti
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Antonio Scotti was an Italian baritone. He was a principal artist of the New York Metropolitan Opera for more than 33 seasons, but also sang with success at Londons Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Antonio Scotti was born in Naples, Italy and his family wanted him to enter the priesthood but he embarked instead on a career in opera. He received his vocal training from Esther Trifari-Paganini and Vincenzo Lombardi. According to most sources, he made his debut at Maltas Theatre Royal in 1889 and this now seems a surprising choice of role for Scotti because his subsequent career did not encompass the operas of Richard Wagner. Scottis American debut took place in the autumn of 1899, when he sang in Chicago, on 27 December 1899 he made his first appearance in New York City at the Metropolitan Opera, undertaking the title role in Mozarts Don Giovanni. Scotti appeared at Covent Garden in London for the first time in 1899 and he would return to London on many occasions prior to World War I. At the Met in 1901, Scotti became the first artist to sing the role of Scarpia in Giacomo Puccinis Tosca in America. He often performed opposite his close friend Enrico Caruso and appeared with the illustrious tenor when he made his Met debut as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto in 1903, Scotti partnered 15 different Toscas over the course of his long career at the house. In 1912, Scottis arrival in the United States with Pasquale Amato and he performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on a regular basis until 1910, with additional appearances in the 1913–1914 season. During this period, he not only Londons first Scarpia but also its first Sharpless in Puccinis Madama Butterfly. In 1917, he was elected a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. Scotti performed in Paris at the Opéra Comique singing Tosca, in 1910 at Theatre du Châtelet with the Metropolitan ensemble, Scotti sung Falstaff with Toscanini and at the Opera, in a gala performance, the third act of La bohème with Caruso and Farrar. In 1908, he sang at Salzburg in Don Giovanni, with Lilli Lehmann, Johanna Gadsky, Geraldine Farrar and he formed his own troupe of singers in 1919, calling it, naturally enough, the Scotti Opera Company. He managed it for several seasons while touring the United States, Scotti celebrated his 25th anniversary with the Met on 1 January 1924 in a gala performance of Tosca. By the 1930s, Scottis voice had declined considerably but he retained his place on the Mets roster of singers due to his outstanding histrionic ability and his final Met appearance occurred on 20 January 1933, when he sang Chim-Fen in LOracolo, he had created the role in 1905. Scotti returned to Italy to spend his retirement and he died in poverty in Naples in 1936, aged 70. Scotti can be heard singing snatches of Scarpias music in part of an exciting performance of Tosca that was recorded live at the Met on faint
13.
Pasquale Amato
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Pasquale Amato was an Italian operatic baritone. Amato enjoyed an international reputation but attained the peak of his fame in New York City, Amato was born in Naples and studied locally at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella under Beniamino Carelli and Vincenzo Lombardo. In 1900, he made his debut at the Teatro Bellini in Naples as Germont père in La traviata, engagements followed in Genoa and Rome. Over the next few years he sang in Monte Carlo, Germany, parts of eastern Europe, in 1904, he appeared at Londons Royal Opera House with the Teatro di San Carlo Company, although well-received, he was not invited back. He was engaged by La Scala, Milan, and sang there in 1907 under the baton of Arturo Toscanini and his voice had matured by now into a top-class instrument and he was praised for his versatility and artistic integrity. In 1913 he was accorded the honour of taking part in the Verdi centenary commemoration at the Busseto Theatre and he appeared at the commemoration in La traviata and Falstaff with Toscanini conducting. Amato repeated some of these roles at the Metropolitan Opera, where Toscanini had gone to conduct and he maintained a taxing performance schedule at the Met until he left the company in 1921, appearing in a number of operatic works that he had not undertaken before. In 1910, for example, he sang in Glucks Armide, along with Olive Fremstad, Enrico Caruso, Louise Homer and Alma Gluck. In December of that year, he created the part of Jack Rance in Puccinis La fanciulla del West, singing opposite Caruso, Emmy Destinn, Dinh Gilly. In 1913, Amato created the role in Cyrano by Walter Damrosch, Frances Alda. He performed, too, in that production of Un ballo in maschera with Caruso, Destinn, Margarete Matzenauer and Frieda Hempel. In La Gioconda, he sang alongside Destinn again, and Margarethe Arndt-Ober, Amato was especially admired as Escamillo in Carmen, supporting Geraldine Farrar, Caruso and Alda, when the opera was successfully revived in 1914. In 1916, he gave the premiere American performance of the role of Giovanni in Riccardo Zandonais Francesca da Rimini, amatos punishingly busy schedule at the Met took its toll on his voice and his health in general. He retired to Italy during the 1920s, to relax and recuperate and he died at the age of 64 in Jackson Heights, Queens. Amato in his prime possessed a high baritone voice of wide compass. According to Michael Scott in The Record of Singing, it had a ringing, Amato also sang with masterful phrasing and cantabile. In short, he was one of the most distinctive singers of his age, a number of extremely impressive gramophone records of operatic arias were made by Amato in America for the Victor Talking Machine Company—including some duets with Caruso and other stars of the Met. His 1914 Victor recording of Eri tu, for example, is considered by critics to be the finest version ever committed to disc
14.
Fernando De Lucia
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Fernando De Lucia was an Italian opera tenor and singing teacher who enjoyed an international career. De Lucia was admired in his lifetime as an exponent of verismo parts — particularly Canio in Leoncavallos Pagliacci — and of certain roles written by Verdi. Since then, however, he has acquired a great reputation among record-collectors for something different. They hail him as the exemplar of a type of graceful, ornamental tenor singing which originated prior to verismo, especially valued are the recordings that De Lucia made of Almavivas arias and duets from Rossinis bel canto comic opera Il barbiere di Siviglia. De Lucia was born in Naples, where he studied at the Naples Music Conservatory with Vincenzo Lombardi and he made his debut at the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, as Gounods Faust in 1885. Over the next two or three years he sang in Spain, South America and in the smaller Italian opera houses, in Linda di Chamounix, Dinorah, Lelisir damore, Fra Diavolo and his Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia was described as truly detestable by The Times newspaper. On October 31,1891, De Lucia took part in the premiere of Lamico Fritz. The opera had been composed by the up-and-coming musician Pietro Mascagni, De Lucia capitalized on Europes Mascagni craze of the early 1890s. Accordingly, in November 1892, he was engaged by the Florence opera house to create the tenor lead in Mascagnis third opera, appearing with him in the work was the virtuoso baritone Mattia Battistini. De Lucias verismo-opera career continued apace with the first English performance, of Leoncavallos Pagliacci, opposite Nellie Melba, De Lucia sang the part of Canio, which had been created a year earlier in Milan by Fiorello Giraud. Klein describes an audience breathless with excitement, and De Lucias burning intensity in the role as a triumph of realism. Mascagni made his own London debut at Covent Garden, conducting Lamico Fritz on June 19,1893 with Calvé and, of course, De Lucia in the cast. Soon afterwards, again with Calvé, and accompanied by the song composer Paolo Tosti, De Lucia sang excerpts from Cavalleria rusticana for Queen Victoria at Windsor. On July 7 of that year, appearing in a cast which included soprano Nellie Melba, in 1893-94, De Lucia sang in New York City at the Metropolitan Opera. He repeated his Canio with Melba and Ancona, and this was esteemed and he did not repeat the experience. In London in 1894, he performed both Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci at Covent Garden, with Ancona in the baritone parts. Shaw admired the altogether exceptional dramatic force which their performances gave to the pair of works and that season he was also in a bilingual Faust, with Melba, Ancona and Bauermeister. Shaw thought the role of Faust too heavy for De Lucia, several times in the garden scene he found the right musical treatment with exceptional success
15.
Claque
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A claque is an organized body of professional applauders in French theatres and opera houses. Members of a claque are called claqueurs, hiring people to applaud dramatic performances was common in classical times. For example, when the Emperor Nero acted, he had his performance greeted by an encomium chanted by five thousand of his soldiers and this inspired the 16th-century French poet Jean Daurat to develop the modern claque. Buying a number of tickets for a performance of one of his plays, in 1820 claques underwent serious systematization when an agency in Paris opened to manage and supply claqueurs. By 1830 the claque had become an institution, the manager of a theatre or opera house was able to send an order for any number of claqueurs. These were usually under a chef de claque, who judged where the efforts of the claqueurs were needed, there would be commissaires who learned the piece by heart and called the attention of their neighbors to its good points between the acts. Rieurs laughed loudly at the jokes, pleureurs, generally women, feigned tears, by holding their handkerchiefs to their eyes. Chatouilleurs kept the audience in a humor, while bisseurs simply clapped and cried Bis. The practice spread to Italy, Vienna, London and New York, claques were also used as a form of extortion, as singers were commonly contacted by the chef de claque before their debut and forced to pay a fee, in order not to get booed. Later Toscanini and Mahler discouraged claques, as a part of the development of concert etiquette, although the practice mostly died out in Europe during the mid-20th century, it has continued in Russia, most famously with the Bolshoi Ballet, and US presidential speaking engagements
16.
Arturo Toscanini
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Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and of the 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for detail and sonority. He was at times the music director of La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Toscanini was born in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, and won a scholarship to the music conservatory. Living conditions at the conservatory were harsh, for example, his diet consisted almost completely of fish. When he became successful, he never ate anything that came from the sea and he joined the orchestra of an opera company, with which he toured South America in 1886. Carlo Superti and Aristide Venturi tried unsuccessfully to finish the work, in desperation, the singers suggested the name of their assistant Chorus Master, who knew the whole opera from memory. The public was taken by surprise, at first by the youth and sheer aplomb of this unknown conductor, for the rest of that season, Toscanini conducted eighteen operas, all with absolute success. Thus began his career as a conductor, at age 19, upon returning to Italy, Toscanini set out on a dual path for some time. He continued to conduct, his first appearance in Italy being at the Teatro Carignano in Turin, on November 4,1886, in the world premiere of the revised version of Alfredo Catalanis Edmea. This was the beginning of Toscaninis lifelong friendship and championing of Catalani, however, he also returned to his chair in the cello section, and participated as cellist in the world premiere of Verdis Otello under the composers supervision. The composer was impressed when Toscanini consulted him personally about Verdis Te Deum. Verdi said that he had left it out for fear that certain interpreters would have exaggerated the marking, gradually, Toscaninis reputation as an operatic conductor of unusual authority and skill supplanted his cello career. In the following decade, he consolidated his career in Italy, entrusted with the premieres of Puccinis La bohème. In 1896, Toscanini conducted his first symphonic concert and he exhibited a considerable capacity for hard work, conducting 43 concerts in Turin in 1898. By 1898, Toscanini was Principal Conductor at La Scala, where he remained until 1908, returning as Music Director and he brought the La Scala Orchestra to the United States on a concert tour in 1920/21, during which he made his first recordings. Outside Europe, Toscanini conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as well as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and he toured Europe with the New York Philharmonic in 1930. At each performance, he and the orchestra were acclaimed by critics, Toscanini was the first non-German conductor to appear at Bayreuth, and the New York Philharmonic was the first non-German orchestra to play there
17.
Mariinsky Theatre
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The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky. Through most of the Soviet era, it was known as the Kirov Theatre, today, the Mariinsky Theatre is home to the Mariinsky Ballet, Mariinsky Opera and Mariinsky Orchestra. Since Yuri Temirkanovs retirement in 1988, the conductor Valery Gergiev has served as the general director. The theatre is named after Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Tsar Alexander II, there is a bust of the Empress in the main entrance foyer. The theatres name has changed throughout its history, reflecting the climate of the time, Note. The theatre building is called the Mariinsky Theatre. Originally, the ballet and opera performances were given in the wooden Karl Knipper Theatre on Tsaritsa Meadow, the Hermitage Theatre, next door to the Winter Palace, was used to host performances for an elite audience of aristocratic guests invited by the Empress. A permanent theatre building for the new company of opera and ballet artists was designed by Antonio Rinaldi, known as the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre the structure was situated on Carousel Square, which was renamed Theatre Square in honour of the building. Both names – Kamenny and Bolshoi – were coined to distinguish it from the wooden Little Theatre, in 1836, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was renovated to a design by Albert Cavos, and served as the principal theatre of the Imperial Ballet and opera. On 29 January 1849, the Equestrian circus opened on Theatre Square and this was also the work of the architect Cavos. The building was designed to double as a theatre and it was a wooden structure in the then-fashionable neo-Byzantine style. Ten years later, when this circus burnt down, Albert Cavos rebuilt it as an opera, with a seating capacity of 1,625 and a U-shaped Italian-style auditorium, the theatre opened on 2 October 1860, with a performance of A Life for the Tsar. The new theatre was named Mariinsky after its patroness, Empress Maria Alexandrovna. The Imperial Mariinsky Theatre and its predecessor, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, hosted the premieres of many of the operas of Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, when the theatre was designated as principal venue of the Imperial Ballet and Opera in 1886, the theatre was extensively renovated. Other notable productions included Rimsky-Korsakovs opera The Golden Cockerel in 1909, the imperial and Soviet theater was the home of numerous great impresarios, conductors, and musicians. Conductors, Mikhail Zhukov, Israel Chudnovsky and others, under Yuri Temirkanov, Principal Conductor from 1976 to 1988, the Opera Company continued to stage innovative productions of both modern and classic Russian operas. Although functioning separately from the Theatre’s Ballet Company, since 1988 both companies have been under the leadership of Valery Gergiev as Artistic Director of the entire Theatre
18.
Bolshoi Theatre
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The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The theatres original name was the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow, at that time, all Russian theatres were imperial property. Moscow and St. Petersburg each had two theatres, one intended for opera and ballet, and one for plays. Because opera and ballet were considered nobler than drama, the houses were named Grand Theatres. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and it is by far the worlds biggest ballet company, having more than 200 dancers. The theatre is the parent company of The Bolshoi Ballet Academy and it has a branch at the Bolshoi Theatre School in Joinville, Brazil. The main building of the theatre, rebuilt and renovated several times during its history, is a landmark of Moscow, on 28 October 2011, the Bolshoi was re-opened after an extensive six-year renovation. The official cost of the renovation is 21 billion rubles, however, other Russian authorities and other people connected to it claimed much more public money was spent. The renovation included restoring acoustics to the quality, as well as restoring the original Imperial decor of the Bolshoi. The company was founded on 28 March 1776 by Prince Pyotr Vasilyevich Ouroussoff, the current theatre was built on Theatre Square between 1821 and 1824. It was designed by architect Andrei Mikhailov and it opened on 18 January 1825 as the Bolshoi Petrovsky Theatre with a performance of Fernando Sors ballet, initially, it presented only Russian works, but foreign composers entered the repertoire around 1840. On 20 August 1856 the Bolshoi Theatre reopened, other repairs of the building took place in 1896. On 7 December 1919 the house was renamed the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre, only a few days later, however, on 12 December, there was an unsuccessful attempt to shut the institution down entirely. Beethoven Hall opened on 18 February 1921, there was further reconstruction of the theatre between 1921 and 1923 under the auspices of Ivan Rerberg. Bomb damage occurred during World War II, but this was promptly repaired, a new stage for the Bolshoi Theatre, called the New Stage, went into service on 29 November 2002. It was built to the left of the historic main stage. Together with auxiliary buildings — a restored 17th-century building, two halls, and artists recreation rooms — it forms a single theater complex, the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia. The new building is on a hill where, until recently
19.
Umberto Giordano
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Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas. He was born in Foggia in Apulia, southern Italy, and his first opera, Marina, was written for a competition promoted by the music publishers Casa Sonzogno for the best one-act opera, remembered today because it marked the beginning of Italian verismo. The winner was Mascagnis Cavalleria rusticana, the result was Mala Vita, a gritty verismo opera about a labourer who vows to reform a prostitute if he is cured of his tuberculosis. This work caused something of a scandal when performed at the Teatro Argentina, Rome and it played successfully in Vienna, Prague and Berlin and was re-written as Il Voto a few years later, in an attempt to raise interest in the work again. Giordano then moved to Milan and returned to verismo with his work, Andrea Chénier. Fedora, based on Victorien Sardous play, featured a young tenor named Enrico Caruso. It was also a success and is performed today. His later works are less known, but occasionally revived and in the case of La cena delle beffe recognised by musicologists. He died in Milan at the age of 81, the most important theater in his home town of Foggia has been dedicated to Umberto Giordano. A square in Foggia is also named him and contains several statues representing his most famous works. Marina Mala Vita Regina Diaz Andrea Chénier Fedora Il Voto Siberia Marcella Mese mariano Madame Sans-Gêne Giove a Pompei La cena delle beffe Il re La festa del Nilo
20.
Fedora (opera)
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Fedora is an opera in three acts by Umberto Giordano to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the play Fédora by Victorien Sardou. Along with Andrea Chénier and Siberia, it is one of the most notable works of Giordano. It was first performed at the Teatro Lirico in Milan on 17 November 1898 conducted by the composer with Gemma Bellincioni creating the role of Fedora, in 1889, Umberto Giordano saw Sardous play Fédora at the Teatro Bellini di Napoli, with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role. He immediately asked Sardou for permission to base an opera on the play, following the premiere of his 1894 Regina Diaz, Giordanos publisher, Edoardo Sonzogno, asked Sardou again. However, Sardou demanded what Sozogno considered an exorbitant fee and it was only on the third attempt, and after Giordanos success with Andrea Chénier in 1896, that an agreement was reached to go ahead with the opera. Its first performance took place in Milan at the Teatro Lirico Internazionale, Gemma Bellincioni sang the role of Fedora, and Enrico Caruso was Loris Ipanov. The opera had great success on its night, and was soon brought to the Vienna Staatsoper by Mahler. Fedora received its US premiere on 5 December 1906 at the New York Metropolitan Opera, with Caruso as Count Loris, Lina Cavalieri as Fedora, and Arturo Vigna conducting. The opera received eight performances during the Mets 1906/1907 and 1907/1908 seasons, by the mid-20th century, however, operatic tastes had changed, and the opera became performed more sporadically. Among Fedoras most recent performances are those at the Vienna Staatsoper in 2003, La Scala in 2004, the sound of sleigh-bells is heard, and the Count is brought in mortally wounded. Doctors and a priest are summoned, and the servants are questioned and it is proposed that Count Loris Ipanov, a suspected Nihilist sympathizer, was probably the assassin. De Siriex, and Grech plan an investigation, Fedora swears on the jeweled Byzantine cross she is wearing that Count Andrejevichs death will be avenged. Paris Fedora has followed Loris Ipanov there to avenge her fiancés death, there is a reception at Fedoras house. Boleslao Lazinski, a virtuoso pianist is playing for the party-goers, Ipanov arrives and declares his love for Fedora. She tells him that she is returning to Russia the following day, Loris is desperate because he has been exiled from Russia and cannot follow her. He confesses to Fedora that it was he who had killed Count Vladimir, Fedora asks him to return after the reception is over to tell her the whole story. When she is alone, Fedora writes a letter to the chief of the Imperial Police in Russia accusing Ipanov of Count Vladimirs murder, Loris returns and confesses that he killed Count Vladimir because he had discovered that he and his wife were lovers. The night of the homicide, Ipanov had discovered them together, Vladimir shot at Ipanov and wounded him
21.
Adriana Lecouvreur
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Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the 1849 play Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé. It was first performed on 6 November 1902 at the Teatro Lirico in Milan, the first was an opera in three acts by Tommaso Benvenuti. The next two were lyric dramas in 4 acts by Edoardo Vera which premiered in Lisbon in 1858, after Cilea created his own Adriana, however, none of those by others were performed anymore and they remain largely unknown today. The opera is based on the life of the French actress Adrienne Lecouvreur, while there are some actual historical figures in the opera, the episode it recounts is largely fictional, its death-by-poisoned violets plot device often signalled as verismo operas least realistic. It is often condemned as being among the most confusing texts ever written for the stage, the running time of a typical modern performance is about 135 minutes. The opera was first performed in the United States by the San Carlo Opera Company on January 5,1907 at the French Opera House in New Orleans with Tarquinia Tarquini in the title role and it gained its Metropolitan Opera premiere on 18 November 1907. It had a run of three performances that season, however, due in large part to Carusos ill-health. Subsequently, it was revived at the Met from time to time until a new production was commissioned in 1963 and that 1963 production continued to be remounted at the same theatre, with differing casts, for the next few decades. It was in the role of this opera that the Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo made his Met debut in 1968. He sang again in Adriana Lecouvreur in February 2009, although his voice was by then in decline, the title role in Adriana Lecouvreur has always been a favorite of sopranos with large voices, which tend to sit less at the very top of their range. Angela Gheorghiu tackled the role at the Royal Opera, London, place, Paris Time,1730 Backstage at the Comédie-Française Preparing for a performance, the company bustle around Michonnet, the stage manager. The Prince de Bouillon, admirer of the actress Duclos, is with his companion, complimented, she sings Io son lumile ancella. The Prince hears that Duclos is writing a letter, and arranges for its interception, left alone with Adriana, Michonnet wants to express his love for her. However, Adriana explains she has a lover, Maurizio, a soldier in the service of the Count of Saxony and she is unaware that Maurizio is in reality the count himself. He enters and declares his love for Adriana, La dolcissima effigie and they agree to meet after the performance. Adriana gives him some violets to put in his buttonhole, the Prince and the Abbé return. They have obtained the letter from Duclos, in which she requests a meeting with Maurizio later that evening near the Princes villa, the Prince decides to arrange a party for the company at the villa in order to expose Duclos and Maurizio. He sends Ducloss letter on to Maurizio, who then cancels his appointment with Adriana, after receiving his notification on stage, she agrees to join the Princes party
22.
Tosca
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Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900 and it contains depictions of torture, murder and suicide, as well as some of Puccinis best-known lyrical arias. Puccini saw Sardous play when it was touring Italy in 1889 and, after some vacillation, turning the wordy French play into a succinct Italian opera took four years, during which the composer repeatedly argued with his librettists and publisher. Tosca premiered at a time of unrest in Rome, and its first performance was delayed for a day for fear of disturbances, despite indifferent reviews from the critics, the opera was an immediate success with the public. Musically, Tosca is structured as a work, with arias, recitative, choruses. Puccini used Wagnerian leitmotifs to identify characters, objects and ideas, the dramatic force of Tosca and its characters continues to fascinate both performers and audiences, and the work remains one of the most frequently performed operas. Many recordings of the work have been issued, both of studio and live performances, the French playwright Victorien Sardou wrote more than 70 plays, almost all of them successful, and none of them performed today. In the early 1880s Sardou began a collaboration with actress Sarah Bernhardt, Puccini had seen La Tosca at least twice, in Milan and Turin. Ricordi sent his agent in Paris, Emanuele Muzio, to negotiate with Sardou and he complained about the reception La Tosca had received in Italy, particularly in Milan, and warned that other composers were interested in the piece. Nonetheless, Ricordi reached terms with Sardou and assigned the librettist Luigi Illica to write a scenario for an adaptation, in 1891, Illica advised Puccini against the project, most likely because he felt the play could not be successfully adapted to a musical form. When Sardou expressed his unease at entrusting his most successful work to a new composer whose music he did not like. He withdrew from the agreement, which Ricordi then assigned to Alberto Franchetti, Illica wrote a libretto for Franchetti, who was never at ease with the assignment. There are several versions of how Ricordi got Franchetti to surrender the rights so he could recommission Puccini, by some accounts, Ricordi convinced Franchetti that the work was too violent to be successfully staged. Franchetti family tradition holds that Franchetti gave the work back as a gesture, saying. American scholar Deborah Burton contends that Franchetti gave it up simply because he saw merit in it. Franchetti surrendered the rights in May 1895, and in August Puccini signed a contract to control of the project. According to the libretto, the action of Tosca occurs in Rome in June 1800, Sardou, in his play, dates it more precisely, La Tosca takes place in the afternoon, evening, and early morning of 17 and 18 June 1800. Italy had long divided into a number of small states
23.
Pasquale Simonelli
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Pasquale Isidoro Simonelli, Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy, was an Italian-American banker. Born in Saviano, province of Naples, Simonelli was educated at the Normal School of Naples and, at first, in 1897, on the ship Oregon, he sailed from Naples Italy and, on February 10, arrived in New York city, United States of America. Here he began to teach Italian Language, in 1898–99, he worked as a librarian at St. Xavier College, New York City. Joseph N. Francolini, Mr. Simonelli started his career as a clerk with the Italian Savings Bank of New York City. The following year he was appointed secretary of the bank and in 1901, in 1902, he became a U. S. citizen and joined the Republican Party. In 1903, Simonelli was instrumental in securing the services of Enrico Caruso for the New York Metropolitan Opera. Throughout his life, he continued to other famous opera singers, such as Maria Barrientos, Beniamino Gigli, Titta Ruffo, Riccardo Stracciari. Simonelli married Rosa in 1903 and had two children, Julius and Maria, from 1920 to 1932, Mr. Simonelli was President of the Italian Savings Bank. The King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, conferred him the honour of Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy. From 1922 to 1930, Simonelli was Treasurer and Director of the Italian Chamber of Commerce, during those years he was also vice president of the Comitato pro Sacco and Vanzetti. In 1926, he was Director and organizer of the Seward National Bank, from 1927 to 1934, he was also Director of the Italian Super-Power Co. He resided in New York City at 326 W. 89th St. until 1936, in 1937 Simonelli retired to Italy, at his castle “Villa Simonelli” in San Paolo Belsito, Naples. There, he spent the rest of his life as a country gentleman and his remains rest in the Simonelli family mausoleum in the cemetery of SantErasmo in Saviano, Naples. Campbell Dorcas Elisabeth, The First Hundred Years, the Chronicle of a Mutual Savings Bank, East River Savings Bank New York,1949, pp. 67–69,94. Cannistraro, Philip V. Mussolini, Sacco-Vanzetti, and the Anarchists, The Transatlantic Context, The Journal of Modern History, Vol.68, Il Mattino, Italiani che onorano la Patria allEstero. Pasquale Simonelli, La Cronaca del Mezzogiorno, 15-16 Febbraio 1928, Il Progresso italo americano, Il banchiere che portò Caruso negli USA, sezione B - supplemento illustrato della domenica, New York,27 luglio 1986. A Biographical Dictionary of outstanding Italo-Americans and Italian Residents of the United States, Volume One, Published by The Vigo Press,2 Rector Street, New York City,1935, Italian Savings Bank, Italian Savings Bank. Cartered 1896, New York City,1920, jackson Stanley, Caruso, First edition, New York, Stein and Day,1972, pp.99,106,110,124
24.
Euterpe
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In Greek mythology, Euterpe was one of the Muses, the daughters of Mnemosyne, fathered by Zeus. Called the Giver of delight, when later poets assigned roles to each of the Muses, in late Classical times she was named muse of lyric poetry and depicted holding a flute. A few say she invented the aulos or double-flute, though most mythographers credit Marsyas with its invention, pindar and other sources, describe the Thracian king Rhesus, who appears in the Iliad, as son of Euterpe and the river-god Strymon, Homer calls him son of Eioneus. Muse Muses in popular culture Euterpe by Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
25.
Tiffany & Co.
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Tiffany & Company is an American luxury jewelry and specialty retailer, headquartered in New York City. Tiffany sells jewelry, sterling silver, china, crystal, stationery, fragrances, water bottles, watches, personal accessories, many of these goods are sold at Tiffany stores, as well as through direct-mail and corporate merchandising. Tiffany is renowned for its goods and is particularly known for its diamond jewelry. Tiffany markets itself as an arbiter of taste and style, and was once a purveyor to the Russian imperial family, founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. The name was shortened to Tiffany & Company in 1853 when Charles Tiffany took control, Tiffany & Company has since opened stores in major cities all over the world. Unlike other stores at the time in the 1830s, Tiffany clearly marked the prices on its goods to forestall any haggling over prices, in addition, against the social norm at the time, Tiffany only accepted cash payments, and did not accept payments on credit. Such practices, fixed prices for ready money, were first introduced by Palmers of London Bridge in 1750, who employed the young Robert Owen, the later social reformer. The first Tiffanys mail order catalog, known as the Blue Book, was published in 1845 in the United States, in 1862, Tiffany & Company supplied the Union Army with swords, flags and surgical implements. In 1867, Tiffany & Co. was the first US firm to win an award for the excellence in silverware at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. In 1870, the built an new store building at 15 Union Square West, Manhattan, designed by John Kellum. It was described by The New York Times as a palace of jewels, Tiffany stayed at this site until 1906. In 1877, an insignia that would become the famous New York Yankees NY logo was struck on a medal of honor by Tiffany & Company. In 1878, Tiffany won the medal for jewelry and a grand prize for silverware at the Paris Exposition. In 1887, Tiffany bought the French Crown Jewels, which attracted publicity, the company revised the Great Seal of the United States in 1885. In 1902, after the death of Charles Lewis Tiffany, his son, Louis Comfort Tiffany, in 1919, the company made a revision to the Medal of Honor on behalf of the United States Department of the Navy. This Tiffany Cross version was rare because it was awarded only for combat, in 1942 the Navy established the Tiffany version for non-combat heroism, but in August 1942 the Navy eliminated the Tiffany Cross and the two-medal system. In 1956, legendary designer Jean Schlumberger joined Tiffany, and Andy Warhol collaborated with Tiffany to create Tiffany Holiday Cards. In 1968 Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady of the U. S. at the time, in November 1978, Tiffany & Co. was sold to Avon Products Inc. for about US$104 million in stock
26.
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
27.
Francesco Tamagno
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Francesco Tamagno was an Italian operatic tenor who sang with enormous success throughout Europe and America. On 5 February 1887, he sang Otello in the first performance of Giuseppe Verdis opera and he is also the earliest Italian tenor of note to have left a sizeable body of recordings of his voice. As a man, he was one of the first international public figures to admit in the fact that he was the single parent and carer of a daughter. The most famous tenor of his age, Tamagno performed in a total of 26 countries, gaining renown for the power of his singing. Critics likened the sound of his voice to that of a trumpet or even a cannon and he participated, too, in the premiere of Verdis Italian-language version of Don Carlos when it was staged at La Scala in 1884, singing the eponymous role of the Infante of Spain. He excelled in the newer parts of Radames in Aida, Samson in Samson et Dalila, Alim in Le roi de Lahore. Yet, in his days, before his voice grew too robust, he was able to negotiate a role as light. Interestingly enough, with one exception, Tamagno largely eschewed verismo opera. That notable exception was Umberto Giordanos Andrea Chénier and he studied the score of Chénier with Giordano in 1898 and earned accolades for his magisterial delivery of the tenor leads four showpiece solos at ensuing productions of the work. He was on terms, too, with Giordanos rival Giacomo Puccini. Like all singers, however, he had his vocal shortcomings and he was not an adroit sight-reader, justifying this limitation by insisting that he was an emotional person who preferred to deliver his music from the heart rather than from the head. Critics occasionally reprimanded him for striving to maximise the excitement factor of his performances by holding on to top notes longer than necessary and he was also chided intermittently for getting behind or ahead of the conductors beat. Tamagno pursued a busy and highly acclaimed career that lasted for more than three decades, during that time, he appeared in more than 50 different operas and sang at almost every important theatre in Europe, South America and the United States. He also had the distinction of participating in eight performances of new or substantially refashioned operatic works by significant composers such as Verdi, Ponchielli. Born into a family in the northern Italian city of Turin in 1850. Tamagno embarked on a series of singing engagements in Ferrara, Rovigo, Venice and Barcelona which raised his profile further. La Scala was Italys principal opera theatre, and Tamagno became a member of its company of singers. His voice continued to mature at La Scala, reaching its potential after a few years of spirited use in a variety of operas
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Otello
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Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeares play Othello. It was Verdis penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, when it finally premiered in Milan on 5 February 1887, it proved to be a resounding success, and further stagings of Otello soon followed at leading theatres throughout Europe and America. Thus a plot of sorts was hatched in order to coax the composer out of retirement to write another opera, because of the importance of the dramatic aspects of opera to the composer, Verdi was especially selective in his choice of subjects. Consequently, if he were to agree to another opera after a decade of retirement. Verdis refusals continued as the 1870s progressed, but she confessed defeat yet again. Clara Maffei also tried, unsuccessfully, in March 1878 to interest Verdi, what would I succeed in doing. Boito, Verdi, and revisions of Simon Boccanegra While he was attempting to get Verdi involved a new opera, persisting with further attempts to convince the composer, Ricordi had also broached the idea of a collaboration with Boito for a new opera based on Shakespeares Othello. Because of its relatively straightforward story, the play Othello was selected as a likely target, collaborations with Boito in the revision of the 1857 opera Simon Boccanegra helped to convince Verdi of Boitos ability as a librettist. Verdi visited Milan on 30 June 1879, and conducted his Requiem Mass in a performance at La Scala. He received the acclaim of the public, which included the La Scala orchestra playing outside his hotel. Walker assumes that it was both Ricordi and Faccio who stage managed the effects to give the composer the sense of being welcome and respected in Milan. Finally, after some plotting, Ricordi, in conjunction with Verdis friend, during a dinner at Verdis Milan residence during the summer of 1879, Ricordi and Faccio guided the conversation towards Shakespeares play Othello and to the librettist Arrigo Boito. At the mention of Othello I saw Verdi fix his eyes on me, with suspicion and he had certainly understood, he had certainly reacted. I believed the time was ripe, suggestions were made, despite initial skepticism on the part of the composer, that Boito would be interested in creating a new libretto based upon the play. Within several days, Ricordi approached Verdi with the request that he would like to visit Sant Agata with a friend in September, Verdis reaction was clearly non-committal, I wish absolutely to avoid committing myself The best thing. Is for him to me the finished poem. Meanwhile, Boito began work on the libretto in spite of illness and, after appealing to Giuseppina, Ricordi was told that the Verdis would be coming to Milan and that he would meet privately with Boito. However, she noted in her letter of 7 November, Between ourselves, what Boito has so far written of the African seems to please him, and is very well done
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Giuseppe Borgatti
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Giuseppe Borgatti was an Italian dramatic tenor with an outstanding voice. Borgatti was born into a rural family from the Province of Ferrara in northern Italy and grew up illiterate. This handicap did not prevent Borgatti from finding work as a bricklayer/stone-cutter and he was also called up by the authorities to discharge a compulsory period of military service. Luckily, a wealthy patron happened to him sing. Struck by the inherent quality of Borgattis voice, the patron arranged for him to have singing lessons. His voice teachers included Alessandro Busi in Bologna and, later, in 1892, Borgatti made his operatic debut at Castelfranco Veneto, singing the role of Faust in the opera of the same name by Charles Gounod. A string of performances at other Italian opera houses ensued in mainly lyric parts, eighteen ninety-four saw Borgatti successfully undertake the role of the Chevalier des Grieux in a notable production in Venice of Giacomo Puccinis Manon Lescaut. Later that same year he appeared at another venue, the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan. His career was now gaining momentum but he would not become a major opera star until 1896 when, at Milans La Scala. He also visited Spain and Russia, in 1901, he took part in a grand concert at La Scala that had been organised to mark the recent death of Verdi. Toscanini conducted the concert and among the array of soloists participating in it with Borgatti were Tamagno, Borgatti was accorded the honour of being the first Italian tenor invited to sing at Germanys Bayreuth Festival in 1904. Both Cosima Wagner and the important Wagnerian conductor Hans Richter praised Borgattis voice, in 1906, he made a different venture into the field of German opera when he sang Herod in the La Scala premiere of Salome by Richard Strauss. Two years later, he was called upon to perform at the new Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Modern-day critics, including Scott, J. B. Steane and John Freestone, have praised him, too, for the clarity of his diction, the limpidity of his tone and the fineness of his phrasing. He took pride in the fact even after he took on the heavy Wagnerian repertoire. Oddly enough, despite his exceptional attainments as a singer and interpretive artist, at the height of his career, in 1907, Borgatti began losing his sight due to glaucoma. This affliction grew steadily worse, obliging him to retire from the stage seven years after its onset. He kept giving concerts, however, and the theatre in his town of Cento was named in his honour in 1924
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Germania (opera)
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Germania is an operatic dramma lirico consisting of a prologue, two acts, an intermezzo and an epilogue by Alberto Franchetti to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. The opera premiered on 11 March 1902 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, however, after Puccini expressed interest in it, Franchetti relinquished his rights, and Illica gave the composer Germania instead. The composer and librettist, who were close friends, had previously collaborated on the opera Cristoforo Colombo. In composing the music, Franchetti quoted widely from German and students popular songs, Germania premiered under the baton of Arturo Toscanini and featured famed tenor Enrico Caruso, who sang the aria Studenti udite on his first recording, in the role of the student Federico. The opera would go on to become Franchettis most successful work, time and place, in and around Nuremberg, in the year 1806. A group of students are hiding the bookseller and publisher Giovanni Filippo Palm, the instigators of the hunt for Palm are Napoleons occupying forces, who, along with a number of German princes, have been severely criticised in Palms book. Philosophers, poets and students appeal to the inhabitants of the German territories to rise up against their exploitation, the students cannot agree on how to pursue their struggle, with the sword or the pen. Worms seduces Ricke while Loewe is away, Ricke is desperate because Worms warns her that Loewe and he will have to settle the matter in a duel if she confesses the act to Loewe. She agrees not to reveal her disloyalty even though plagued by her conscience, meanwhile, a young lad, Jebbel, has accepted a bribe from the police and revealed Palms hiding place. Loewe, Ricke, her sister Jane, their elderly mother, when word goes round that Worms has died in battle Ricke looks optimistically to an untroubled future with her husband Loewe. Yet on the day of their wedding Worms suddenly appears. Realising that the ceremony is over, he runs off, shortly afterwards Loewe notices that Ricke has vanished. He discovers a letter from her in which she declares her love for him. She pleads for forgiveness, but Loewe swears to himself on Worms. Time and place, years later, a meeting of the anti-Napoleon Queen Louise League in Königsberg. Students from across Germany are assembled, united behind one slogan, Jebbel, now a young man, appears before the League tribunal and confesses to having betrayed Palm to the police years ago. Suddenly Loewe appears, swearing vengeance against Worms and he challenges him to a duel. Worms is resolved to end the feud by letting Loewe kill him, together they declare their hopes for a future Germany free of tyranny
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Alberto Franchetti
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Alberto Franchetti was an Italian opera composer. Alberto Franchetti was born in Turin, a Jewish nobleman of independent means and he studied first in Venice, then at the Munich Conservatory under Josef Rheinberger, and finally in Dresden under Felix Draeseke. His first major success occurred in 1888 with his opera Asrael and his operatic style combined Wagnerianism and the traits of Meyerbeer with Italian verismo. During his life, critics referred to him as the Meyerbeer of modern Italy. The words of music critic G. B, in this regard Alberto Franchetti knows that he has no rival. Grove considers Cristoforo Colombo Franchettis best work, however, his most popular opera was Germania. It clung to the operatic repertoire until the First World War, it was performed worldwide. But by the war, Germania had lapsed into obscurity, another version is that Franchetti waived his rights to the opera because he felt that Puccini would make a better job of it - this is believed to have been stated by the Franchetti family. Of Franchettis last opera Glauco only the third act finale No piange ancora with its haunting melody and this was despite a plea for tolerance on his behalf from Pietro Mascagni to Benito Mussolini, which was rejected, just before Franchettis death. Recent revivals and recordings of Cristoforo Colombo and Germania show his work to be of genuine quality with an ability in orchestration and use of the chorus. These traits, along with a tendency for two-dimensional characters, were recognised early. He also wrote a Symphony in E minor and he was the director of the Florence College of Music from 1926 to 1928, it was the only musical post he ever held. He died in Viareggio in 1942, aged 81 and he was a member of the World War 2 Italian Resistance Underground movement from 1946 to 1948. Arnold Franchetti was Professor of Composition at the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford, the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera. London, New York and Melbourne, Oxford University Press
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Gramophone Company
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This article is about the company which operated the HMV record label. For the HMV Records label, see His Masters Voice, the Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organisation for the famous His Masters Voice label. The Gramophone Company was founded in 1898 by William Barry Owen and Trevor Williams in London, Owen was acting as agent for Emile Berliner, inventor of the gramophone record, whilst Williams provided the finances. Most of the early discs were made in Hanover, Germany at a plant operated by members of Berliners family. In 1898, Fred Gaisberg moved from the U. S. to London to set up the first disc recording studio in Europe, among early artists he recorded was the Syria Lamont, an Australian soprano whose single Coming through the Rye was one of the first ever issued. In December 1900, Owen gained the rights for the Lambert Typewriter Company. This was an attempt to diversify the business model, in response to a series of lawsuits brought about by Edison Bell. In 1900, the U. S. parent of Gramophone lost a patent infringement suit brought on by Columbia Records and Zonophone, the agreement allowed Columbia to produce flat records themselves, which they began doing in 1901, Columbias records had previously been cylinders. Thus, Victor and Columbia began making records in the U. S. with UK Gramophone. This left Edison the only player in the making of cylinders. Emile Berliner went out of the business, all he had left were the masters of his earlier records. These he took to Canada and reformed his Berliner label in Montreal, Edison would soon join the flat record market with his diamond discs and their players. A public relations effort of 1907 involved Alfred Clark, a New York representative of the company, Clark persuaded the Paris Opera to seal and lock 24 records in two iron and lead containers in a basement storage room. These were to be opened in 100 years, in 1912,24 more records were added in two additional containers, along with a wind-up gramophone and a supply of needles to insure the records could be played when unsealed. In 1989, it was discovered one of the 1912 containers had been opened and emptied. The three remaining containers were moved to the French National Library, when opened in December 2007, some of the records were broken, but copies of the missing and broken records were located in the French National Library. EMI digitized the collection and released it on three discs in February 2009 as Les Urnes de lOpera. The latter had designed by Theodore Birnbaum, an executive of the Gramophone Company pressing plant in Hanover
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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
34.
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
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Nellie Melba
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Dame Nellie Melba GBE, born Helen Porter Mitchell, was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and she was the first Australian to achieve international recognition as a classical musician. She took the pseudonym Melba from Melbourne, her home town, Melba studied singing in Melbourne and made a modest success in performances there. After a brief and unsuccessful marriage, she moved to Europe in search of a singing career, failing to find engagements in London in 1886, she studied in Paris and soon made a great success there and in Brussels. Returning to London she quickly established herself as the lyric soprano at Covent Garden from 1888. She soon achieved success in Paris and elsewhere in Europe. Her repertoire was small, in her career she sang no more than 25 roles and was closely identified with only ten. She was known for her performances in French and Italian opera, during the First World War, Melba raised large sums for war charities. She returned to Australia frequently during the 20th century, singing in opera and concerts and she was active in the teaching of singing at the Melbourne Conservatorium. Melba continued to sing until the last months of her life and her death, in Australia, was news across the English-speaking world, and her funeral was a major national event. Melba was born in Richmond, Victoria, the eldest of seven children of the builder David Mitchell, Mitchell, a Scot, had emigrated to Australia in 1852, becoming a successful builder. Melba was taught to play the piano and first sang in public around age six and she was educated at a local boarding school and then at the Presbyterian Ladies College. She studied singing with Mary Ellen Christian and Pietro Cecchi, an Italian tenor, in her teens, Melba continued to perform in amateur concerts in and around Melbourne, and she played the organ at church. Her father encouraged her in her studies, but he strongly disapproved of her taking up singing as a career. Melbas mother died suddenly in 1881 at Richmond, Melbas father moved the family to Mackay, Queensland, where he built a new sugar mill. Melba soon became popular in Mackay society for her singing and piano-playing, on 22 December 1882 in Brisbane, she married Charles Nesbitt Frederick Armstrong, the youngest son of Sir Andrew Armstrong. They had one child, a son, George, born on 16 October 1883, the marriage was not a success, Charles reportedly beat his wife more than once. The couple separated after just over a year, and Melba returned to Melbourne determined to pursue a singing career, debuting professionally in concerts in 1884
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Jean de Reszke
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Jean de Reszke, was a Polish tenor who was a major male opera star of the late 19th century. Jan Mieczysław Reszke was born into comfortable circumstances in Warsaw, Poland in 1850, both his parents were Poles, his father was a state official and his mother a capable amateur singer, their house being a recognized musical centre. At age 19, Jean and his father visited Italy, in Venice he attended a performance in which the Italian baritone Antonio Cotogni sang. Cotognis singing made such an impression on him that the young de Reszke followed him for the next five years wherever he performed—London, St. Petersburg. During that time he was under Cotognis tutelage, also as baritone, in January 1874, he made his debut in Venice as Jan de Reschi, undertaking the baritone part of Alfonso in a production of Donizettis La favorite. The following April, he sang for the first time in London, performing at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and a little later in Paris, essaying an array of different baritone roles. De Reszke displayed limitations as a baritone and he withdrew from the stage to allow for a period of study. Under Sbirgilias tutelage, his voice gained remarkably in the freedom of its upper register, accordingly, when he made his first operatic reappearance in 1879, it was as a tenor, scoring a success in the title-role of Meyerbeers Robert le diable. Indeed, the then 29-year-old de Reszkes immense fame as a singer dates from this moment, De Reszkes 1888 Covent Garden appearances proved exceedingly popular with audiences. Indeed, they were responsible for the revival of the operatic art form as a fashionable amusement in London. He would sing in the British capital nearly every year until 1900 and he also gave a single performance as the tenor lead in Massenets Werther. In 1891, de Reszke sang in the United States for the first time, one of De Reszkes colleagues, the Australian lyric soprano Nellie Melba, became a close personal friend of his during this period. She replaced the ageing star Adelina Patti as the most celebrated of his various stage partners and he was closely associated with the French and Wagnerian operatic repertoires during the peak of his career at Covent Garden and the Met. His French signature parts were considered to be Meyerbeers three big heroes, Gounods Faust and Romeo, and the title role in Massenets Le Cid. American-born Lillian Nordica was the most illustrious of the dramatic sopranos that partnered him in Wagners operas, during his heyday, De Reszke sang Italian operas less frequently than French or Wagnerian ones. On this occasion Shaw also chided him for his laziness and his customary lateness in meeting cues, though by, De Reszke married a countess in 1896. He reduced his performance load during the years of the 20th century. Prudently, in 1904, he decided to retire while his voice was still in good shape, enrico Caruso,23 years de Reszkes junior, took up his mantle as the worlds most famous tenor
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Metropolitan Opera
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The Metropolitan Opera, commonly referred to as The Met, is a company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager, the music director position is in transition as of 2016. The music director designate is Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the director emeritus is James Levine. The Met was founded in 1880 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, the Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. It presents about 27 different operas each year in a season lasts from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating schedule with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Moving to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966, performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday, several operas are presented in new productions each season. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other opera houses, the rest of the years operas are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons. The 2015-16 season comprised 227 performances of 25 operas, the operas in the Mets repertoire consist of a wide range of works, from 18th-century Baroque and 19th-century Bel canto to the Minimalism of the late 20th century. These operas are presented in staged productions that range in style from those with elaborate traditional decors to others that feature modern conceptual designs, the Mets performing company consists of a large symphony-sized orchestra, a chorus, childrens choir, and many supporting and leading solo singers. The company also employs numerous free-lance dancers, actors, musicians, the Mets roster of singers includes both international and American artists, some of whose careers have been developed through the Mets young artists programs. The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to New Yorks old established Academy of Music opera house, the subscribers to the Academys limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these old families were loath to admit New Yorks newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Operas founding subscribers determined to build a new house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. A group of some 22 men assembled at Delmonicos restaurant on April 28,1880 and they elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. The first Met subscribers included members of the Morgan, Roosevelt, the new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22,1883, and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The Academy of Musics opera season folded just three years after the Met opened, in its early decades the Met did not produce the opera performances itself but hired prominent manager/impresarios to stage a season of opera at the new Metropolitan Opera House. Henry Abbey served as manager for the season, 1883–84
38.
Marcella Sembrich
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Marcella Sembrich was the stage name of the Polish coloratura soprano, Prakseda Marcelina Kochańska. She had an important international singing career, chiefly at the New York Metropolitan Opera, Sembrich was born at Wisniewczyk, in Austrian Galicia, now part of Ukraine. She first studied violin and piano with her father, later, she entered the Lemberg Conservatory and studied piano with her future husband Wilhelm Stengel and violin with Sigismond Bruckmann. She entered the Vienna Conservatory in Autumn 1875 and it was only then that her remarkable voice was discovered. She studied violin with Joseph Hellmesberger Sr. piano with Julius Epstein, after a year it was decided to give up study of the violin and piano and fully devote the young student to voice lessons. After less than a year of study with the younger of the two Lampertis, Sembrich made her debut in opera at Athens as Elvira in Bellinis I puritani on June 3,1877. She not only sang Puritani, but also Dinorah, Lucia di Lammermoor, Robert le diable and it is a testament to her proper early training and intelligence that a 19-year-old soprano could learn so many roles in a foreign language so quickly. While her success was solid, she still had much to learn, after Athens she was to appear with the Vienna Opera, but due to pregnancy she broke the contract. During her pregnancy and after the birth of her first son, Wilhelm Marcel, she continued her vocal studies, after a long and frustrating search for an opera engagement she was hired as a guest at the Dresden Royal Opera House in September 1878, debuting as Lucia. Her success was immediate and she was dubbed the Polish Patti and she was immediately made a member of the company and remained in Dresden battling opera house politics, until 1880. She broke her contract at Dresden and sang a number of concerts to raise money to go to London and she had an auspicious audition with the impresario Ernest Gye at Covent Garden and signed a contract there for five seasons. In June 1880 she created a sensation in her debut at Covent Garden as Lucia in Donizettis Lucia di Lammermoor, in 1883, Marcella Sembrich went to the United States to sing in the newly founded Metropolitan Opera company. Due to the financial loss of the company that year, Italian opera was abandoned. While away from New York, Sembrich was a favorite at the Italian Opera in St. Petersburg, Russia. Sembrich returned to the Met in 1898, after this date, she taught students from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and at the Juilliard School of Music. Her students included Alma Gluck, Hulda Lashanska, Queena Mario, Dusolina Giannini, Josephine Antoine, Natalie Bodanya, Polyna Stoska, additionally, some of her students in turn became important vocal teachers around the country. Among them were Anna Hamlin at Smith College, Edith Piper and Florence Page Kimball at Juilliard, the outbreak of World War I had made it impossible for the diva to return to her beloved Alps during the summers. Sembrich turned instead to the Adirondack Mountains area and spent summers at Lake Placid from 1915 to 1921, the Marcella Sembrich Opera Museum can be found at Bolton Landing, New York
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Victor Talking Machine Company
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The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American flagship record company headquartered in Camden, New Jersey. The company was founded by Eldridge R. Johnson, who had previously made gramophones to play Emile Berliners disc records, Victor Talking Machine Co. was incorporated officially in 1901 shortly before agreeing to allow Columbia Records use of its disc record patent. Victor had acquired the Pan-American rights to use the trademark of the fox terrier Nipper listening to a gramophone when Berliner. Barraud noticed that whenever he played a recorded by his brother. Barrauds original depicts Nipper staring intently into the horn of an Edison-Bell while both sit on a wooden surface. The London branch was managed by an American, William Barry Owen, Barraud paid a visit with a photograph of the painting and asked to borrow a horn. Owen gave Barraud an entire gramophone and asked him to paint it into the picture, the original painting still shows the contours of the Edison-Bell phonograph beneath the paint of the gramophone when viewed in the correct light. Only 13 originally commissioned His Masters Voice paintings were commissioned by the company, in 1915, the His Masters Voice logo was rendered in immense circular leaded-glass windows in the tower of the Victrola factory building. The tower remains today with replica windows installed during Radio Corporation of Americas ownership of the plant in its later years, today, one of the original windows is located at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D. C. There are different accounts as to how the Victor name came about, a second account is that Johnson emerged as the Victor from the lengthy and costly patent litigations involving Berliner and Frank Seamans Zonophone. A third story is that Johnsons partner, Leon Douglass, derived the word from his wifes name Victoria, finally, a fourth story is that Johnson took the name from the popular Victor bicycle, which he had admired for its superior engineering. Of these four accounts the first two are the most generally accepted, perhaps coincidentally, the first use of the Victor title on a letterhead, on March 28,1901, was only nine weeks after the death of British Queen Victoria. Before 1925, recording was done by the purely mechanical. No microphone was involved and there was no means of amplification, the recording machine was essentially an exposed-horn acoustical record player functioning in reverse. The sound-vibrated center of the diaphragm was linked to a stylus that was guided across the surface of a very thick wax disc. The wax was too soft to be played back even once without seriously damaging it, although test recordings were sometimes made, although sound quality was gradually improved by a series of small refinements, the process was inherently insensitive. From the start, Victor innovated manufacturing processes and soon rose to preeminence by recording famous performers, in 1903, it instituted a three-step mother-stamper process to produce more stampers and records than previously possible. These new celebrity recordings bore red labels, and were marketed as Red Seal records, for many years these records were single-sided, only in 1923 did Victor begin offering Red Seals in double-sided form
40.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
41.
Manhattan
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Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city
42.
The Knickerbocker Hotel (Manhattan)
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The Knickerbocker Hotel is a hotel located at the southeast corner of Broadway and 42nd Street in New York City. The name Knickerbocker is an iconic Dutch surname associated with New York City, prominent longtime residents of the hotel included Enrico Caruso and George M. Cohan. Built by John Jacob Astor IV as a showcase of luxury in a time of prosperity, the hotel was converted to offices in 1920 and was known as The Knickerbocker Building. It was the home of Newsweek magazine and became the Newsweek Building, after major renovations in 1980 it became known as 1466 Broadway and was used for many years as garment showrooms and offices. During this period it was known as 6 Times Square. It was converted back to use as a hotel in 2013–15 under its original name, the building is in the Beaux-Arts style, constructed of red brick with terracotta details and a prominent mansard roof. The architects were Marvin & Davis, with Bruce Price as consultant, a Philadelphia development group organized by J. E. and A. L. Pennock financed the construction of the hotel starting in 1903 on land owned by John Jacob Astor IV. The Pennocks hired architects Bruce Price and Marvin & Davis to design the French Renaissance-style building, one year later, in February 1904, the investment group that sponsored the developers collapsed and the building was left incomplete, with the exterior complete but housing just an empty shell. In May 1905, Astor assumed control of the project and engaged Trowbridge & Livingston, the Knickerbocker opened October 23,1906, and quickly became a part of the New York social scene. The $3.3 million hotel contained 556 rooms and luxurious restaurants, artist Maxfield Parrish was commissioned to paint a 30-foot-long mural of Old King Cole for the bar. Frederic Remington, Frederick MacMonnies and James Wall Finn also added decorations to the interiors, the bar became so popular that it was nicknamed The 42nd Street Country Club. The martini was said to have been invented by the hotels house bartender in 1912, according to the story, one Martini di Arma di Taggia mixed dry vermouth and gin together and the mixture gained the favor of John D. Rockefeller. The world-famous opera singer Enrico Caruso was a resident of the hotel until it was sold in 1920. He took all his meals at the restaurant, always using the same set of cutlery. On Armistice Day, Caruso appeared at the window of his room and he once gave his overcoat to a cold, homeless man on the sidewalk outside the hotel. After John Jacob Astor IV died on the Titanic in 1912 and it continued to run successfully under James B. Regan, its operator since opening, until 1920, when Regan retired and surrendered his lease, Vincent Astor hired architect Charles A. Platt to design the conversion. The Old King Cole painting was loaned for a time to the Racquet and Tennis Club on Park Avenue, the building became home to Newsweek magazine from 1940 to 1959 and was known as The Newsweek Building
43.
Carmen
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Carmen is an opera in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on a novella of the title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875, Bizet died suddenly after the 33rd performance, unaware that the work would achieve international acclaim within the following ten years. The opera is written in the genre of opéra comique with musical numbers separated by dialogue and it is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. José abandons his sweetheart and deserts from his military duties, yet loses Carmens love to the glamorous toreador Escamillo. The depictions of life, immorality, and lawlessness. After the premiere, most reviews were critical, and the French public was generally indifferent, Carmen initially gained its reputation through a series of productions outside France, and was not revived in Paris until 1883, thereafter it rapidly acquired popularity at home and abroad. Later commentators have asserted that Carmen forms the bridge between the tradition of opéra comique and the realism or verismo that characterised late 19th-century Italian opera. The opera has been recorded many times since the first acoustical recording in 1908, in the Paris of the 1860s, despite being a Prix de Rome laureate, Bizet struggled to get his stage works performed. The capitals two main state-funded opera houses—the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique—followed conservative repertoires that restricted opportunities for young native talent, Bizet was delighted with the Opéra-Comique commission, and expressed to his friend Edmund Galabert his satisfaction in the absolute certainty of having found my path. It was Bizet who first proposed an adaptation of Prosper Mérimées novella Carmen, Bizet may first have encountered the story during his Rome sojourn of 1858–60, since his journals record Mérimée as one of the writers whose works he absorbed in those years. Cast details are as provided by Mina Curtiss from the original piano, the stage designs are credited to Charles Ponchard. Place, Seville, Spain, and surrounding hills Time, Around 1820 Act 1 A square, on the right, a door to the tobacco factory. A group of soldiers relax in the square, waiting for the changing of the guard, moralès tells her that José is not yet on duty and invites her to wait with them. She declines, saying she will return later, José arrives with the new guard, which is greeted and imitated by a crowd of urchins. As the factory bell rings, the cigarette girls emerge and exchange banter with young men in the crowd, Carmen enters and sings her provocative habanera on the untameable nature of love. The men plead with her to choose a lover, and after some teasing she throws a flower to Don José, as the women go back to the factory, Micaëla returns and gives José a letter and a kiss from his mother. He reads that his mother wants him to home and marry Micaëla
44.
Palace Hotel, San Francisco
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The Palace Hotel is a landmark historic hotel in San Francisco, California, located at the SW corner of Market and New Montgomery streets. The present structure opened on December 19,1909, on the site as its predecessor. The hotel was closed from January,1989 to April,1991 to undergo a two-year renovation, Palace Hotel is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The original Palace Hotel was built by San Francisco banker and entrepreneur William Chapman Ralston who heavily depended on his banking empire to help finance the $5 million project. Ralstons business partner in the project was U. S, senator William Sharon who had helped cause the collapse of the Bank when he dumped his stock in the Comstock Lode. Sharon ended up in control of the hotel as well as both the Bank and Ralstons debts both of which he paid off at just pennies on the Dollar. With 755 guest rooms, the original Palace Hotel was at the time of its construction the largest hotel in the Western United States, at 120 feet in height, the hotel was San Franciscos tallest building for over a decade. The skylighted open center of the featured a Grand Court overlooked by seven stories of white columned balconies which served as an elegant carriage entrance. Shortly after 1900 this area was converted into a lounge called the Palm Court, the bartender, William Cocktail Boothby, was a fixture at the hotel for some years. The hotel featured large redwood paneled hydraulic elevators which were known as rising rooms, each guest room or suite was equipped with a private bathroom as well as an electric call button to summon a member of the hotels staff. On November 25,1890, Mōʻī, David Kalakaua visited California aboard the U. S. S, charleston with business between the Kingdom of Hawaii and the US Government. Kalakaua, whose health had been declining, stayed in a suite at the Palace Hotel, traveling throughout Mexico and Southern California and reportedly drinking excessively, the monarch suffered a stroke in Santa Barbara and was rushed back to San Francisco. Kalakaua fell into a coma in his suite on January 18, the official cause of death, listed by US Navy officials was that the king had died from Brights Disease. The most notable feature of the hotel was the Grand Court that served as an area for horse-drawn carriages. The area was converted to the palm filled Garden Court a few years before the 1906 earthquake, where shall we find its equal. You must yield the palm to your great Western rival, as far as structure goes, there is no other hotel building in the world equal to this. The court of the Grand at Paris is poor compared to that of the Palace, andrew Carnegie, Round the World Free guided tours of the hotel are led by volunteers of the San Francisco City Guides, a program of the San Francisco Public Library. Although the hotel survived the damage from the early morning April 18,1906, San Francisco earthquake
