1.
Geraldine Ferraro
–
Geraldine Anne Ferraro was an American attorney, a Democratic Party politician, and a member of the United States House of Representatives. In 1984, she was the first female presidential candidate representing a major American political party. Ferraro grew up in New York City and worked as a school teacher before training as a lawyer. She joined the Queens County District Attorneys Office in 1974, heading the new Special Victims Bureau that dealt with sex crimes, child abuse, and domestic violence. In 1984, former president and presidential candidate Walter Mondale, seen as an underdog. Ferraro became the only Italian American to be a major-party national nominee in addition to being the first woman, in the general election, Mondale and Ferraro were defeated in a landslide by incumbent President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush. Ferraro ran campaigns for a seat in the United States Senate from New York in 1992 and 1998 and she served as a United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1993 until 1996 during the presidential administration of Bill Clinton. She also continued her career as a journalist, author, and businesswoman, Ferraro died on March 26,2011, from multiple myeloma,12 years after being diagnosed. She had three brothers born before her, but one died in infancy and another at age three, Ferraro attended the parochial school Mount Saint Marys in Newburgh when she was young. Her father died of an attack in May 1944, when she was eight. Ferraro stayed on at Mount Saint Marys as a boarder for a while, beginning in 1947, she attended and lived at the parochial Marymount Academy in Tarrytown, New York, using income from a family rental property in Italy and skipping seventh grade. At Marymount Ferraro was a member of the society, active in several clubs and sports, voted most likely to succeed. Her mother was adamant that she get an education, despite an uncle in the family saying. Ferraro attended Marymount Manhattan College with a scholarship while sometimes holding two or three jobs at the same time. During her senior year she began dating John Zaccaro of Forest Hills, Queens, Ferraro received a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1956, she was the first woman in her family to gain a college degree. She also passed the city exam to become a school teacher. Ferraro began working as a school teacher in public schools in Astoria, Queens. Unsatisfied, she decided to attend law school, an officer said to her, I hope youre serious
Geraldine Ferraro
–
Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Ferraro
–
Ferraro lived in this building in Newburgh until she was ten.
Geraldine Ferraro
–
Ferraro and her family lived in this house in
Forest Hills Gardens, Queens, during her time in the House, her vice-presidential campaign, and until the early 2000s.
Geraldine Ferraro
–
As with many representatives, Ferraro issued regular newsletters to her constituents.
2.
Melrose, Massachusetts
–
Melrose is a city located in the Greater Boston metropolitan area in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Its population as per the 2010 United States Census is 26,983 and it is a suburb located approximately seven miles north of Boston and is situated in the center of the triangle created by Interstates 93,95 and US Route 1. The land that comprises Melrose was first discovered in 1628 and was part of Charlestown. It became the Town of Melrose in 1850 and then the City of Melrose in 1900, Melrose was originally called Ponde Fielde for its abundance of ponds and streams or Mystic Side because of its location in a valley north of the Mystic River. The area was first explored by Richard and Ralph Sprague in 1628, in 1649, the neighborhood of Charlestown known as Malden was incorporated as a separate town, the new town of Malden included most of present-day Melrose within its borders. North Malden largely remained a lightly populated farming community, in 1845, the Boston and Maine Railroad built three stops. Boston workers in search of a country atmosphere moved to the area, the population of North Malden began growing, and in 1850 North Malden split from Malden proper and was incorporated as the town of Melrose. Melrose annexed the highlands from neighboring Stoneham in 1853, creating the current borders. The population of Melrose continued to grow throughout the half of the nineteenth century. Farmland was increasingly partitioned into parcels for residences and businesses. The fire department and the school district were founded and town hall was built in 1873. In 1899, the City of Melrose became the 33rd incorporated city in Massachusetts, levi S. Gould became the city’s first mayor on January 1,1900. The population of Melrose peaked at 33,180 in 1970 before beginning a slow decline continuing through 2010, on April 1,1982, downtown Melrose was added to the National Register of Historic Places, the public library was similarly added to the register in 1988. The name Melrose comes from the burgh of Melrose, Scotland and it was a reference to the hills of Melrose, Scotland which the new town resembled. The name was suggested and advocated for by William Bogle, a Scotland native, Melrose is located at 42°27′33″N 71°3′44″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 4.8 square miles, of which 4.7 square miles is land and 0.1 square miles. The citys largest body of water is Ell Pond, situated near the center of the city, while other bodies are Swains Pond and Towners Pond. Melrose is approximately 7 miles north of Boston, Massachusetts and it borders four cities and towns, Malden, Saugus, Stoneham, and Wakefield
Melrose, Massachusetts
–
Historical image of Melrose City Hall, located in
Downtown Melrose.
Melrose, Massachusetts
–
Flag
Melrose, Massachusetts
–
Melrose High School as seen from Lynn Fells Parkway
Melrose, Massachusetts
–
Former MassBank building downtown which was used for a bank scene in the movie
The Town (2010)
3.
Ridgefield, Connecticut
–
Ridgefield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Situated in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, the 300-year-old community had a population of 24,638 at the 2010 census, the town center, which was formerly a borough, is defined by the U. S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place. Ridgefield was first settled by English colonists from Norwalk and Milford in 1708, the town was incorporated under a royal charter from the Connecticut General Assembly issued in 1709. The most notable 18th-century event was the Battle of Ridgefield on April 27,1777 and they faced a larger British force that had landed at Westport and was returning from a raid on the colonial supply depot in Danbury. Today, the dead from both sides are buried together in a cemetery on Main Street on the right of the entrance to Casagmo condominiums. foes in arms. The Keeler Tavern, an inn and museum, features a British cannonball still lodged in the side of the building. There are many landmarks from the Revolutionary War in the town. In the summer of 1781, the French army under the Comte de Rochambeau marched through Connecticut, encamping in the Ridgebury section of town, for much of its three centuries, Ridgefield was a farming community. Among the important families in the 19th century were the Rockwells and Lounsburys and they produced two Connecticut governors, George Lounsbury and Phineas Lounsbury. The Ridgefield Veterans Memorial Community Center on Main Street, also called the Lounsbury House, was built by Gov. Phineas Chapman Lounsbury around 1896 as his primary residence, the Lounsbury Farm near the Florida section of Ridgefield is one of the only remaining operational farms in Ridgefield. These and dozens of other estates became unaffordable and unwieldy during and after the Great Depression, in their place came subdivisions of one- and 2-acre lots that turned the town into a suburban, bedroom community in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. However, strong planning and zoning has maintained much of the 19th- and early 20th-century charm of the town, in 1946, Ridgefield was one of the locations considered for the United Nations secretariat building, but was not chosen due to its relative inaccessibility. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 35.0 square miles, of which 34.4 square miles is land and 0.5 square miles. The town is bordered by the towns of North Salem and Lewisboro in Westchester County, New York to the west, Danbury to the north, Wilton to the south, the town has a Metro-North Railroad station called Branchville in the Branchville corner of town. The Census designated place corresponding to the center covers a total area of 6.4 square miles. Ridgefield consists of hilly, rocky terrain, ranging from 1,060 feet above sea level to 342 feet at Branchville and its average village elevation is 725 feet above sea level. The landscape is strewn with countless rocks deposited by glaciers, and among the bodies of water is Round Pond. A particularly interesting feature is Camerons Line, named for Eugene N. Cameron and this fault line was formed some 250 million years ago by the collision of Proto North America and Proto Africa, and there are still occasional light earthquakes felt along its length
Ridgefield, Connecticut
–
Seal
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Ridgefield, Connecticut
–
Main Street, looking south, 1875
Ridgefield, Connecticut
–
Main Street, looking south from Branchville Road, about 1906
4.
Opera singer
–
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
Opera singer
–
The performers from the Atlanta Opera sing the finale of
Lucia di Lammermoor. The
opera orchestra is visible in the lowered area in front of the stage.
Opera singer
–
The
Palais Garnier of the
Paris Opéra, one of the world's most famous
opera houses.
Opera singer
–
Claudio Monteverdi
Opera singer
–
George Frideric Handel, 1733
5.
Film actress
–
An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
Film actress
–
Actors from the
Comédie-Française c. 1720.
Film actress
–
Actors
Jim Brochu and
Steve Schalchlin performing in the
play The Big Voice: God or Merman
Film actress
–
Actress
Margaret Hughes c. 1670
Film actress
–
Recording a radio play in the Netherlands (1949),
Spaarnestad Photo
6.
Lou Tellegen
–
Lou Tellegen was a Dutch-born silent film and stage actor, director and screenwriter. Born Isidore Louis Bernard Edmon van Dommelen, he was the child of army lieutenant Isidore Louis Bernard Edmon Tellegen. In 1910, he made his motion picture debut alongside Bernhardt in La dame aux camélias, in 1910, he and Bernhardt travelled to the United States, where The New York Times first published, and then retracted, the announcement of their impending marriage. Back in France, in 1912 they made their second film together, Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, the latter is considered a lost film. In the summer of 1913, Tellegen went to London where he produced and starred in the Oscar Wilde play, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Invited back to the United States, Tellegen worked in theatre and made his first American film in 1915, titled The Explorer, followed by The Unknown, considered one of the best-looking actors on screen, he followed up with three straight films starring opposite Geraldine Farrar. Tellegens marriage to Farrar ended in divorce in 1923, Tellegen married a total of four times, the first to a sculptress in 1903, the second to Farrar in 1916. His third marriage was to actress Nina Romano and his fourth marriage was to silent film star Eve Casanova. He became an American citizen in 1918, Tellegen appeared in numerous films before his face was damaged in a fire on Christmas Day 1929, when he fell asleep while smoking, preparing for an out-of-town tryout for a play. He had extensive surgery in 1931. One memorable role was as the villain in John Fords Western 3 Bad Men, fame fading, employment not forthcoming, and ridden with debt, he filed for bankruptcy. He was diagnosed cancer, though this information was kept from him. In 1931, he wrote his autobiography Women Have Been Kind, on October 29,1934, while a guest in the Cudahy Mansion at 1844 North Vine Street in Hollywood, Tellegen locked himself in the bathroom, then shaved and powdered his face. Then while standing in front of a mirror, he committed suicide by stabbing himself with a pair of sewing scissors seven times. When asked to comment on Tellegens death, former wife Geraldine Farrar replied, Tellegens remains were cremated and scattered at sea. Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, The Divine Sarah ISBN 0-679-74185-2 David W. Menefee, The Rise and Fall of Lou-Tellegen
Lou Tellegen
–
Lou Tellegen in 1916
Lou Tellegen
–
Tellegen caricatured by OWL in
Vanity Fair, 1913
7.
Julien (opera)
–
Julien, ou La vie du poète is a poème lyrique or opera by composer Gustave Charpentier. The work is devised in a prologue and four acts and uses a French libretto by the composer, Julien is a sequel to Charpentiers Louise and describes the artistic aspirations of Louise’s suitor Julien. The opera premiered in Paris at the Opéra-Comique on 4 June 1913, like Louise, Juliens plot is somewhat autobiographical and requires many characters and chorus roles, with the main female lead portraying four smaller characters in addition to the role of Louise. The opera integrates elements of a piece, La Vie du Poète. The chorus consists largely of filles du rêve, fairies, and chimeras as well as various mens roles, Charpentier described how, except for the prologue, Louise and the various characters who surround Julien are not so much real people as an exteriorized realization of their inner souls. The opera was not well received at its premiere, although it did gain the admiration of Gabriel Fauré who admired its expressionist qualities, the production at the Theater Dortmund was directed by John Dew and conducted by Axel Kober. There are no recordings of the opera. However Juliens aria La voix de la nuit sung by Maurice Dutreix appears as the track on the 1935 abridged recording of Louise. Time, 19th century Place, Initially in Rome, then several others Prologue Enthousiasme Julien and this resembles the life of Charpentier as he too was a Prix de Rome winner. However, after this point, the moves from the real world into the imagination until the final tableau, set in Montmartre. Act 1 Au pays du rêve It contains three settings, the Holy Mountain, followed by a setting in the Accursed Valley, act 2 This takes place in the Slovakian countryside and follows Julien as he experiences doubts in creating his artwork. Act 3 Impuissance This is located in Brittanys wild countryside, act 4 Ivresse Set in Montmartre, it closes in the Place Blanche with the sudden appearance of the Temple of Beauty. Complete piano/vocal score, published in 1913 by M. Eschig
Julien (opera)
–
Enrico Caruso as Julien and
Geraldine Farrar as Louise in the 1914
Metropolitan Opera production
Julien (opera)
–
Charles Rousselière, who created the title role
Julien (opera)
–
Marguerite Carré, who created the role of Louise
Julien (opera)
–
Portrait of Charpentier by
Edgar-Henri Boutry, painted in Rome in 1888
8.
Soprano
–
A soprano is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The sopranos vocal range is from approximately middle C =261 Hz to high A =880 Hz in choral music, in four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto. The lyric soprano is the most common female singing voice, the word soprano comes from the Italian word sopra, as the soprano is the highest pitch human voice, often given to the leading female roles in operas. The term soprano is also based on the Latin word superius which, like soprano, the word superius was especially used in choral and other multi-part vocal music between the 13th and 16th centuries. The soprano has the highest vocal range of all voice types, a soprano and a mezzo-soprano have a similar range, but their tessituras will lie in different parts of that range. The low extreme for sopranos is roughly A3 or B♭3, within opera, the lowest demanded note for sopranos is F3. Often low notes in higher voices will project less, lack timbre, however, rarely is a soprano simply unable to sing a low note in a song within a soprano role. The high extreme, at a minimum, for non-coloratura sopranos is soprano C, a couple of roles have optional E♭6s, as well. In the coloratura repertoire several roles call for E♭6 on up to F6, in rare cases, some coloratura roles go as high as G6 or G♯6, such as Mozarts concert aria Popoli di Tessaglia. Or the title role of Jules Massenets opera Esclarmonde, while not necessarily within the tessitura, a good soprano will be able to sing her top notes full-throated, with timbre and dynamic control. In opera, the tessitura, vocal weight, and timbre of voices, a singers tessitura is where the voice has the best timbre, easy volume, and most comfort. Within the soprano voice type category are five generally recognized subcategories, coloratura soprano, soubrette, lyric soprano, spinto soprano, the coloratura soprano may be a lyric coloratura or a dramatic coloratura. The lyric coloratura soprano is a very agile light voice with a high upper extension capable of fast vocal coloratura, Light coloraturas have a range of approximately middle C to high F with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing somewhat higher or lower. Dramatic coloraturas have a range of approximately low B to high F with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing higher or lower. In classical music and opera, a soubrette soprano refers to both a type and a particular type of opera role. A soubrette voice is light with a bright, sweet timbre, a tessitura in the mid-range, the soubrette voice is not a weak voice, for it must carry over an orchestra without a microphone like all voices in opera. The voice, however, has a lighter weight than other soprano voices with a brighter timbre
Soprano
–
Soprano voice range (C4–C6) indicated in sheet music (left) and on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C.
9.
Opera
–
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
Opera
–
The performers from the Atlanta Opera sing the finale of
Lucia di Lammermoor. The
opera orchestra is visible in the lowered area in front of the stage.
Opera
–
The
Palais Garnier of the
Paris Opéra, one of the world's most famous
opera houses.
Opera
–
Claudio Monteverdi
Opera
–
George Frideric Handel, 1733
10.
Sid Farrar
–
Sidney Douglas Farrar, was a Major League Baseball player who played infielder from 1883-1890. He would play for the Philadelphia Quakers and Philadelphia Athletics and he was the father of opera singer Geraldine Farrar. He lived in a house located in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The road today is named after him, Farrar Lane, career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference
Sid Farrar
–
Sid Farrar
11.
Boston
–
Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies
Boston
–
From top to bottom, left to right: the
Boston skyline viewed from the
Bunker Hill Monument; the
Museum of Fine Arts;
Faneuil Hall;
Massachusetts State House;
The First Church of Christ, Scientist;
Boston Public Library; the
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum;
South Station;
Boston University and the
Charles River;
Arnold Arboretum;
Fenway Park; and the
Boston Common
Boston
–
State Street, 1801
Boston
–
View of Boston from
Dorchester Heights, 1841
Boston
–
Scollay Square in the 1880s
12.
New York City
–
The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
New York City
–
Clockwise, from top:
Midtown Manhattan,
Times Square, the
Unisphere in
Queens, the
Brooklyn Bridge,
Lower Manhattan with
One World Trade Center,
Central Park, the
headquarters of the United Nations, and the
Statue of Liberty
New York City
–
New Amsterdam, centered in the eventual
Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year
England took control and renamed it "New York".
New York City
–
The
Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the
American Revolution, took place in
Brooklyn in 1776.
New York City
–
Broadway follows the Native American Wickquasgeck Trail through Manhattan.
13.
Paris
–
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
Paris
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In the 1860s Paris streets and monuments were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, making it literally "The City of Light."
Paris
Paris
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Gold coins minted by the Parisii (1st century BC)
Paris
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The
Palais de la Cité and
Sainte-Chapelle, viewed from the Left Bank, from the
Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (month of June) (1410)
14.
Francesco Graziani (baritone)
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Francesco Graziani was an Italian baritone and voice teacher. Graziani has been called the first modern baritone because his vocal attributes were well suited to the operatic parts composed by Giuseppe Verdi. Graziani was born in 1828 in Fermo, Italy and his older brother, Lodovico Graziani, was a dramatic tenor. He studied with Cellini and made his debut In Italy in 1851 at Ascoli Piceno in Donizettis Gemma di Vergy, the next season he sang in Macerata, performing Francesco in Verdis I masnadieri. In the summer of 1854, he performed with Max Maretzeks Italian opera company at Castle Garden in New York City and he appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1855 to 1880. He performed the role of Nelusco in the 1865 London premiere of Giacomo Meyerbeers LAfricaine, among the other roles he sang in London were the title role in Rigoletto, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Posa in Don Carlo, and Amonasro in Aida. His last performance at the house was as Germont in La traviata with Adelina Patti on July 17 in the performance of the 1880 season. At St Petersburg, on 10 November 1862, he had cemented a spot in history by creating the role of Don Carlos in the first performance of Verdis La forza del destino. Graziani later moved to Berlin where he became a voice teacher, among his pupils was the American soprano Geraldine Farrar. He died on June 30,1901 at his birthplace, Fermo, during his career, Graziani had faced strong competition on stage from a number of other outstanding Italian baritones. Probably the greatest of his rivals was Roman-born Antonio Cotogni, whose voice was of similar quality. Francesco Graziani had three brothers who also sang professionally, Giuseppe Graziani was a bass and he studied with Saverio Mercadante in Naples and performed primarily in concerts. Lodovico Graziani became a well-known tenor and he created the role of Alfredo in Verdis La traviata at La Fenice. His debut in 1862 was as Belcore in Donizettis Lelisir damore and he gave up his career early, after an illness caused him to become partially deaf. Two Centuries of Opera at Covent Garden, the New Grove Dictionary of Opera. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition
Francesco Graziani (baritone)
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Francesco Graziani, 1855
Francesco Graziani (baritone)
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Francesco Graziani
15.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
16.
Berlin Hofoper
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The Berlin State Opera is a German opera company based in Berlin. Its permanent home is the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, commonly referred to as Lindenoper, in the central Mitte district, originally the Hofoper from 1742, it was named Königliches Opernhaus in 1844, and Staatsoper Unter den Linden in 1918. From 1949 to 1990 it housed the opera of East Germany. Since 2004, the State Opera company belongs to the Berlin Opera Foundation, like the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Berlin State Ballet, king Frederick II of Prussia shortly after his accession to the throne commissioned the original building on the site. Construction work began in July 1741 with what was designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff to be the first part of a Forum Fredericianum on present-day Bebelplatz. Although not entirely completed, the Court Opera was inaugurated with a performance of Carl Heinrich Grauns Cesare e Cleopatra on December 7,1742. This event marked the beginning of the successful, 250-year co-operation between the Staatsoper and the Staatskapelle Berlin, the orchestra, whose roots trace back to the 16th century. In 1821, the Berlin Opera—hosted at the Schauspielhaus Berlin—gave the premiere of Webers Der Freischütz, in 1842, Wilhelm Taubert instituted the tradition of regular symphonic concerts. In the same year, Giacomo Meyerbeer succeeded Gaspare Spontini as General Music Director, Felix Mendelssohn also conducted symphonic concerts for a year. On August 18,1843 the Linden Opera was destroyed by fire, in 1849, Otto Nicolais Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor was premiered at the Royal Opera House, conducted by the composer himself. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and they included Felix von Weingartner, Karl Muck, Richard Strauss, and Leo Blech. After the collapse of the German Empire in 1918, the Opera was renamed Staatsoper unter den Linden, in the 1920s, Kurt Adler, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Erich Kleiber, Otto Klemperer, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Bruno Walter occupied the conductors post. In 1925, Alban Bergs Wozzeck, was given its premiere in a production conducted by Erich Kleiber in the composers presence, after having undergone an extensive renovation, the Linden Opera reopened on 28 April 1928 with a new production of Die Zauberflöte. The cast included Delia Reinhardt, Richard Tauber, Friedrich Schorr and Leo Schützendorf, in the same year, the famous Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin and Serge Diaghilevs Ballets Russes with conductor Ernest Ansermet were guest performers. In 1930 Erich Kleiber conducted the premiere of Darius Milhauds Christophe Colomb, however, in 1934, when symphonic pieces from Alban Bergs Lulu were performed by Kleiber, the National Socialists provoked a scandal and the conductor was forced into exile. After Hitlers Nazi takeover, members of Jewish origin were dismissed from the ensemble, many German musicians associated with the opera went into exile, including the conductors Kurt Adler, Otto Klemperer and Fritz Busch. During the Third Reich, Robert Heger, Herbert von Karajan,1938, Werner Egk conducted the first night of his opera Peer Gynt on November 24. Herbert von Karajan´s interpretation of Mozart´s Die Zauberflöte was performed on December 18, Karajan continued as Generalmusikdirektor, the principal musical director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden between 1941 and 1945
Berlin Hofoper
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Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Berlin Hofoper
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Court Opera, about 1745
Berlin Hofoper
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Interior, rebuilt after the fire in 1843
Berlin Hofoper
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Damaged opera house, 1951 condition
17.
Charles Gounod
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Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, best known for his Ave Maria, based on a work by Bach, as well as his opera Faust. Another opera by Gounod occasionally still performed is Roméo et Juliette, although he is known for his Grand Operas, the soprano aria Que ferons-nous avec le ragoût de citrouille. From his first opera Livre de recettes dun enfant is still performed in concert as an encore, Gounod died at Saint-Cloud in 1893, after a final revision of his twelve operas. His funeral took place ten days later at the Church of the Madeleine, with Camille Saint-Saëns playing the organ and Gabriel Fauré conducting. Ironically because of its obscurity today, an arrangement of Que ferons-nous avec le ragoût de citrouille. was performed by Saint-Saens at the funeral, due to its simple and it was later published as a posthumous Op.60. He was buried at the Cimetière dAuteuil in Paris, Gounod was born in Paris, the son of a pianist mother and an artist father. His mother was his first piano teacher, Gounod first showed his musical talents under her tutelage. He then entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied under Fromental Halévy, in 1839 he won the Prix de Rome for his cantata Fernand. In so doing he was following his father, François-Louis Gounod had won the second Prix de Rome in painting in 1783. During his stay of four years in Italy, Gounod studied the music of Palestrina and other sacred works of the sixteenth century, around 1846-47 he gave serious consideration to joining the priesthood, but he changed his mind before actually taking holy orders, and went back to composition. During that period he was attached to the Church of Foreign Missions in Paris, in 1854 Gounod completed a Messe Solennelle, also known as the St. Cecilia Mass. This work was first performed in its entirety in the church of St. Eustache in Paris on Saint Cecilias Day,22 November 1855, during 1855 Gounod wrote two symphonies. His Symphony No.1 in D major was the inspiration for the Symphony in C composed later that year by Georges Bizet, fanny Mendelssohn, sister of Felix Mendelssohn, introduced the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach to Gounod, who came to revere him. For him The Well-Tempered Clavier was the law to pianoforte study. the unquestioned textbook of musical composition and it inspired Gounod to devise a melody and superimpose it on the C major Prelude from the collections first book. To this melody in 1859, Gounod fitted the words of the Ave Maria, Gounod wrote his first opera, Sapho, in 1851 at the urging of his friend, the singer Pauline Viardot, it was a commercial failure. He had no theatrical success until Faust, derived from Goethe. The romantic and melodious Roméo et Juliette, premiered in 1867, is revived now, mireille, first performed in 1864, has been admired by connoisseurs rather than by the general public. The other Gounod operas have fallen into oblivion, from 1870 to 1874 Gounod lived in England, at 17 Morden Road, Blackheath
Charles Gounod
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Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
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Charles Gounod in 1859, the year of the premiere of Faust.
Charles Gounod
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Gounod late in his career.
Charles Gounod
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Gounod's guitar.
18.
Faust (opera)
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The manager Léon Carvalho insisted on various changes during production, including cutting several numbers. Faust was not initially well received, the publisher Antoine Choudens, who purchased the copyright for 10,000 francs, took the work on tour through Germany, Belgium, Italy and England, with Marie Miolan-Carvalho repeating her role. It was revived in Paris in 1862, and was a hit, further notable revivals at the Opéra took place on 4 December 1893 and 25 January 1908. The popularity of Faust has declined somewhat, beginning around 1950, a full production, with its large chorus and elaborate sets and costumes, is an expensive and time-consuming undertaking, particularly if the act 5 ballet is included. However, it appears as number 35 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide and it was Faust with which the Metropolitan Opera in New York City opened for the first time on 22 October 1883. It is the eighth most frequently performed there, with 747 performances through the 2011-2012 season. It was not until the period between 1965 and 1977 that the version was performed, and all performances in that production included the Walpurgisnacht. Place, Germany Time, 16th century Fausts cabinet Faust, a scholar, determines that his studies have come to nothing and have only caused him to miss out on life. He attempts to kill himself with poison but stops each time when he hears a choir and he curses science and faith, and asks for infernal guidance. Méphistophélès appears and, with an image of Marguerite at her spinning wheel. Fausts goblet of poison is magically transformed into an elixir of youth, making the aged doctor a handsome young gentleman, at the city gates A chorus of students, soldiers and villagers sings a drinking song. Valentin, leaving for war with his friend Wagner, entrusts the care of his sister Marguerite to his youthful friend Siébel, Méphistophélès appears, provides the crowd with wine, and sings a rousing, irreverent song about the Golden Calf. Méphistophélès maligns Marguerite, and Valentin tries to him with his sword. Valentin and friends use the hilts of their swords to fend off what they now know is an infernal power. Méphistophélès is joined by Faust and the villagers in a waltz, Marguerite appears and Faust declares his admiration, but she refuses Fausts arm out of modesty. Marguerites garden The lovesick boy Siébel leaves a bouquet for Marguerite, Faust sends Méphistophélès in search of a gift for Marguerite and sings a cavatina idealizing Marguerite as a pure child of nature. Méphistophélès brings in a box containing exquisite jewelry and a hand mirror and leaves it on Marguerites doorstep. Marguerite enters, pondering her encounter with Faust at the city gates, marthe, Marguerites neighbour, notices the jewellery and says it must be from an admirer
Faust (opera)
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Charles Gounod
Faust (opera)
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Miolan-Carvalho as Marguerite (1860)
Faust (opera)
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The vision of Marguerite as staged at
Covent Garden in 1864 with
Jean-Baptiste Faure as Méphistophélès and
Giovanni Mario as Faust
Faust (opera)
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Marguerite's garden in the original production, set design by
Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph Thierry
19.
Lilli Lehmann
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Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch was a German operatic soprano of phenomenal versatility. She was also a voice teacher, the future opera stars father, Karl-August Lehmann, was a singer while her mother, Maria Theresia Löw, was a soprano. Her younger sister, Marie also went on to become an operatic soprano and her first lessons were from her mother, who had been a prima donna under Spohr at the Cassel opera. She subsequently became so successful that she was appointed an Imperial Chamber Singer for life in 1876, Lehmann sang in the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, singing in the first complete performances of The Ring Cycle as Woglinde and Helmwige. She performed in London in 1884, and appeared at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1885–1899, together with her Met colleagues Fischer, Alvary, Brandt, and Seidl, she helped to popularise Wagners music in America. By remaining in America beyond the leave granted her by the Berlin Opera, after the personal intervention of the Emperor, the ban was lifted. She appeared at Londons Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1899 and sang in Paris, in 1905, she sang at the Salzburg Festival, later becoming the festivals artistic director. Lehmann was also renowned as a Lieder singer and she continued to give recitals until her retirement from the concert stage in the 1920s. She was considered unsurpassed in the roles of Brünnhilde and Isolde, indeed, across the span of her career, she performed 170 different parts in a total of 119 German, Italian and French operas. She was noted not only for her rendering of the musical score and she was also a noted voice teacher. Among her pupils were the famous sopranos Geraldine Farrar, Viorica Ursuleac, Edytha Fleischer, Olive Fremstad, in 1888, she married the tenor Paul Kalisch. Lehmann founded the International Summer Academy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg in 1916, the academys curriculum concentrated on voice lessons at first but it was extended later to include a wide variety of musical instruction. The Lilli Lehmann Medal is awarded by the Mozarteum in her honour and her voice can be heard on CD reissues of the recordings which she made prior to World War I. Although past her peak as a singer when she made these records. 3rd Edition,1924, republished, Mineola, N. Y, L. Andro, Lilli Lehmann Lilli Lehmann, Mein Weg. Seligman, My Path through Life, New York, 1914) This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Gilman. Thurston, H. T. Colby, F. M. eds
Lilli Lehmann
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Lilli Lehmann
Lilli Lehmann
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Portrait with signature, 1903
20.
Lillian Nordica
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Lillian Nordica was an American opera singer who had a major stage career in Europe and her native country. She was born Lillian Allen Norton in a small Cape Cod style farmhouse built by her grandfather on a hill in Farmington, the Nordica stage name was bestowed by an Italian maestro at the beginning of her operatic career. He convinced her that European opera-goers would not tolerate a diva with a plain sounding, the adopted name, Giglia Nordica, meant Lily of the North but she soon became known as Madame Nordica or simply as Nordica. In her youth, Nordica is said to have possessed an inherent fondness for music, when she was eight her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts to continue the musical education of her sister Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina died before her 18th birthday, family hopes were then pinned on Lillian and her musical education began soon thereafter. She trained as a singer at Boston, graduating from the New England Conservatory in that city at the age of 18 and she had made her public debut at the conservatory as a soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society. Convinced that she could forge a career as a professional performer, she travelled to Italy. As Madame Nordica, she made her debut at Brescia in 1879. She went on to assume a high rank among the international prima donnas of her era, appearing in major musical venues in Western Europe. She sang for example at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1887-93, in her native America she was particularly associated with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where her frequent stage partner was the cultured Polish tenor Jean de Reszke. She sang at the Met from 1891 until 1910, with breaks in between. By all accounts Nordica possessed a big, agile and pure-toned soprano voice which she was prepared to use unstintingly. She established her reputation as an opera singer of the first magnitude despite facing powerful competition during her career from a number of other outstanding dramatic sopranos. Her main rivals included Lilli Lehmann, Rosa Sucher, Katharina Klafsky, Milka Ternina, Therese Malten, Johanna Gadski, Félia Litvinne, Olive Fremstad, Anna von Mildenburg, by 1913, Nordicas voice and health were in decline. She nearly missed the ship leaving Sydney on her return, and it would prove to be a fatal mistake. The Tasman hit a reef, where it remained for three days, and Nordica suffered hypothermia from which she never recovered. She was taken to Thursday Island, Queensland, where she was hospitalised for some time, there she befriended a small American boy who was taken ill while on a different vessel passing through Torres Strait. After his death, Nordica installed a gravestone in the cemetery in his memory
Lillian Nordica
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Lillian Nordica
Lillian Nordica
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Nordica as Brünnhilde, 1898
Lillian Nordica
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Nordica's birthplace c. 1908
Lillian Nordica
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Portrait of Lillian Nordica executed by Hermann Schmiechen in 1878. Oil on panel, 61 x 40 in. Presently in the collection of the Nordica Memorial Association, Farmington, Maine
21.
Ambroise Thomas
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Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer, best known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death. There is good music, there is bad music, and then there is Ambroise Thomas, - Emmanuel Chabrier Thomass parents were music teachers. By the age of 10, he was already an experienced pianist and violinist, in 1828, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Jean-François Le Sueur while at the same time taking piano lessons privately from the famous virtuoso Frédéric Kalkbrenner. In 1832, his cantata Hermann et Ketty won the Conservatorys prestigious composition prize, the Grand Prix de Rome and he took with him a love for Mozart and Beethoven, but once in Rome, he became an ardent admirer of the Italian cantilena and melodic tradition. It was during his Italian sojourn that he wrote all of his music, namely, a piano trio, a string quintet. The first opera Thomas composed, La double échelle, was produced at the Opéra Comique, Le caïd, did still better, and achieved over 400 performances. For the next quarter of a century Thomass productivity was incessant, the overture to Raymond has also been given the occasional modern performance. To his theatrical successes, Thomas added administrative achievements, in 1856 he acquired a professorship at the Conservatoire, where he taught, among others, Jules Massenet, one of the few French composers of the younger generation whose music interested him. See, List of music students by teacher, T to Z#Ambroise Thomas and he succeeded Auber as director of the Conservatoire in 1871. With Mignon, Thomas achieved his first great acclaim outside, as well as within and it is still heard sometimes today, more often in the form of extracts for concert use, or in recordings, than in complete stagings. One of its arias, Connais-tu le pays, was for generations among the most famous operatic excerpts by any composer, Thomas turned to Shakespeare again for his Hamlet, with a libretto by the seasoned team of Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. This opera has a strong, dramatic libretto, although it closes with a happy ending. It enjoyed a vogue, and like Mignon it continues to have a certain following, during 2010 it was heard at New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. His last opera, Françoise de Rimini based on a passage from Dantes Inferno, seven years later La tempête, a ballet, was produced at the Opéra, again with little effect. Massenet had hopes of succeeding him in the job of Conservatoire director, the man who got the job was not Massenet but, rather, organist-composer Théodore Dubois. Thomas was the first musician to ever be awarded the Grand-Croix de la Légion dhonneur, see, List of operas by Ambroise Thomas. La gipsy, second act ballet at the Opéra de Paris,1839 Betty, joseph Mazilier, Opéra de Paris,1846 La tempête, chor. Joseph Hansen, Opéra de Paris,26 June 1889 String Quartet in E major, Op.1 Listing of the works of Alexandre Falguière Composers, Ambroise Thomas Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Thomas, Ambroise Thomas Ambroise Thomas String Quartet in e minor Soundbites & short biography
Ambroise Thomas
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Photograph of Ambroise Thomas by Wilhelm Benque, c. 1895.
Ambroise Thomas
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Portrait of Ambroise Thomas in 1834 by
Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin
Ambroise Thomas
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Thomas circa 1880, taken by
Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon.
22.
Mignon
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Mignon is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, the Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyces The Dead and Willa Cathers The Professors House, thomass goddaughter Mignon Nevada was named after the main character. The first performance was at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 17 November 1866, the piece proved popular, more than 100 performances took place by the following July, the 1, 000th was given there on 13 May 1894, and the 1, 500th on 25 May 1919. The opera was adapted and translated into German for performance in Berlin with Madame Lucca as Mignon. This ending was an attempt to make the story of the somewhat more similar in tone to the tragic outcome of Goethes. Unsurprisingly, this Version allemande still failed to satisfy the German critics, as Henry Edward Krehbiel describes it, the Mignon of Carré and Barbier bears little more than an external resemblance to the Mignon of Goethe, and to kill her is wanton cruelty. Despite his success in Paris with the French version, Thomas was asked to revise the work for the first performance at the Drury Lane Theatre in London on 5 July 1870 and this version was given in Italian with recitatives. The role of Mignon, originally for mezzo-soprano, was sung by a soprano, the finale was also much shortened. Philines extra aria appears to have never been orchestrated, or the orchestration was lost or destroyed. The recording also includes an appendix with the original, longer version of the finale. The United States premiere was given on 9 May 1871 at the French Opera House in New Orleans and this was followed by a Maurice Strakosch production in Italian at the New York Academy of Music on 22 November 1871 with Christine Nilsson as Mignon, Mlle. Léon Duval as Philine, Victor Capoul as Wilhelm, and Mlle, the substantial success of the opera in London and New York has been attributed to the presence of Christine Nilsson in both productions. Nilsson also performed the role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1883, more recently, in 1986, the original opéra comique version with soprano Cynthia Clarey as Mignon was revived for a production at the Wexford Festival Opera. Lily Pons was famous for singing Philine, time, End of the 18th century. In the courtyard of an inn in a small German town, the wandering minstrel Lothario sings, jarno threatens Mignon with a stick when she refuses to dance, but Lothario and Wilhelm Meister come to her aid. She thanks them and divides her bouquet of flowers between them. Wilhelm and Laerte have a drink together, Philine and Laerte leave, after he gives her his flowers from Mignon
Mignon
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Ambroise Thomas
Mignon
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Poster created by
Jules Chéret for the 1866 premiere of Mignon.
Mignon
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Célestine Galli-Marié created the role of Mignon at the première.
Mignon
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Marie Cabel as Philine
23.
Jules Massenet
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Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are Manon and Werther and he also composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, songs and other music. While still a schoolboy, Massenet was admitted to Frances principal music college, there he studied under Ambroise Thomas, whom he greatly admired. After winning the top musical prize, the Prix de Rome, in 1863, he composed prolifically in many genres. Massenet had a sense of the theatre and of what would succeed with the Parisian public. Despite some miscalculations, he produced a series of successes that made him the composer of opera in France in the late 19th. Like many prominent French composers of the period, Massenet became a professor at the Conservatoire and he taught composition there from 1878 until 1896, when he resigned after the death of the director, Ambroise Thomas. Among his students were Gustave Charpentier, Ernest Chausson, Reynaldo Hahn, by the time of his death, Massenet was regarded by many critics as old-fashioned and unadventurous although his two best-known operas remained popular in France and abroad. After a few decades of neglect, his works began to be favourably reassessed during the mid-20th century, Massenet was born at Montaud, then an outlying hamlet and now a part of the city of Saint-Étienne, in the Loire. He was the youngest of the four children of Alexis Massenet and his second wife Eléonore-Adelaïde née Royer de Marancour, Massenet senior was a prosperous ironmonger, his wife was a talented amateur musician who gave Jules his first piano lessons. By early 1848 the family had moved to Paris, where settled in a flat in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Massenet was educated at the Lycée Saint-Louis and, from either 1851 or 1853 and his biographer Demar Irvine dates the audition and admission as January 1853. Both sources agree that Massenet continued his education at the lycée in tandem with his musical studies. At the Conservatoire Massenet studied solfège with Augustin Savard and the piano with François Laurent and he pursued his studies, with modest distinction, until the beginning of 1855, when family concerns disrupted his education. Alexis Massenets health was poor, and on advice he moved from Paris to Chambéry in the south of France. On his return he lodged with relations in Montmartre and resumed his studies, the familys finances were no longer comfortable, and to support himself Massenet took private piano students and played as a percussionist in theatre orchestras. His work in the pit gave him a good working knowledge of the operas of Gounod and other composers, classic. He gained some work as a piano accompanist, in the course of which he met Wagner who, in 1861 Massenets music was published for the first time, the Grande Fantasie de Concert sur le Pardon de Ploërmel de Meyerbeer, a virtuoso piano work in nine sections
Jules Massenet
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Massenet photographed by
Pierre Petit, 1880
Jules Massenet
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Massenet's birthplace in Montaud, photographed c. 1908
Jules Massenet
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Massenet in the early 1860s
Jules Massenet
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Auditorium of the
Opéra-Comique
24.
Manon
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It was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 19 January 1884, with sets designed by Eugène Carpezat, Auguste-Alfred Rubé and Philippe Chaperon, and Jean-Baptiste Lavastre. Prior to Massenets work, Halévy and Auber had used the subject for musical stage works, Massenet also wrote a one-act sequel to Manon, Le portrait de Manon, involving the Chevalier des Grieux as an older man. The composer worked at the score of Manon at his home outside Paris. Manon is Massenets most popular and enduring opera and, having conquered the worlds stages. It is the example of the charm and vitality of the music. The opera was a mainstay of the Opéra-Comique in Paris, reaching its 1, 000th performance there in 1919, its 1, 500th in 1931 and 2, due to its heavy vocal demands, the role of Manon was described by Sills as the French Isolde. At the Royal Opera House in London it was first presented 19 May 1891, the Metropolitan Opera gave its first staging on 16 January 1895, and Manon has subsequently been performed there on 266 occasions. Anna Netrebko recently starred in a new production directed by Laurent Pelly, a co-production with the Royal Opera House, the San Francisco Opera gave the opera many stagings beginning on 29 September 1924, the most recent being November 1998. Operabase shows 19 countries presenting a total of 425 performances of 81 productions in 61 cities, the ballet Lhistoire de Manon by Kenneth MacMillan, although using music entirely written by Massenet, does not include any from Manon. While the innkeeper is serving dinner to the party, the townspeople collect to witness the arrival of the coach from Arras, among them is Lescaut, a guardsman, who tells his comrades that he plans to meet a kinswoman. Manon is accosted by the opportunistic Guillot, who tells her that he has a carriage waiting and his heavy-handed seduction is undermined by the return of Lescaut, who then lectures the young woman on proper behavior. He leaves her once more and she admires the three fashionably-dressed actresses, but reproaches herself, unconvincingly vowing to rid herself of all worldly visions. Des Grieux, traveling home to see his father, catches sight of Manon, when he approaches, she is charmed by his chivalrous address, and their exchange rapidly becomes a mutual avowal of love. Both their planned journeys, hers to the convent and des Grieuxs to his home, are swiftly abandoned, but there are hints of incompatible aspirations, while he returns, over and again, to tous les deux, the phrase she fondly repeats is, à Paris. Making good use of the carriage provided by the disappointed Guillot, Manon and des Grieuxs apartment in Paris With little hope, des Grieux writes to his father, imploring permission to marry Manon. Lescaut enters intent on creating a scene and accompanied by de Brétigny, but his concern for offended family honor is only camouflage for his alliance with his friend. Trying to prove his honorable intentions, des Grieux shows Lescaut the letter to his father, after the two visitors depart, Manon appears to vacillate between accepting de Brétignys offer and warning des Grieux. When her lover out to post his letter, her farewell to the humble domesticity she has shared makes clear she has decided to go with de Brétigny
Manon
–
Jules Massenet
Manon
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"Gathering around a score" by Charles Baude (1853–1935) shows Massenet rehearsing Manon with Sibyl Sanderson in Pierre Loti's drawing room. It was used as the cover of Le Théâtre in July 1889.
Manon
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Dmitri Smirnov as Le Chevalier des Grieux (1909, by
Aleksandr Golovin)
Manon
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Geraldine Farrar as Manon
25.
Juliet Capulet
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Juliet Capulet is the female protagonist and one of two title characters in William Shakespeares romantic love tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Juliet is the daughter of Capulet, the patriarch of the Capulet family. The story has a history that precedes Shakespeare himself. The play takes place over a span of five days. Within these few days, Juliet is thrust into adulthood quickly—where she must deal with issues of such as, romance, Passion, loss. When Romeo found out he thought she was dead and drank poison to meet her in the after life, Shakespeares Juliet is a headstrong and intelligent character in spite of her young age, though she often seems timid to the audience because of her young age. She is considered by many to be the hero of the play, acting as a sounding board. It is Juliet who sets the boundaries of behavior in her relationship with Romeo, she allows him to kiss her, she pledges her commitment before him, Juliets forgiveness of Romeo after he kills Tybalt indicates her mature nature in contrast to his passionate impulsiveness. Furthermore, Juliet lies and clandestinely subverts her familys wishes, a truly rebellious action against traditional Italian society and these actions and the choices they require establish Juliet as a far more complex character than her family, or even Romeo, appreciate. Juliets wealthy family lived in Verona, headed by old Capulet and she was their only child and was thought of as a gift from heaven. Juliet at this point is two weeks away from her fourteenth birthday, as a child, she was cared for by her nurse, who is now her confidant, or Juliets best companion. In Juliets first scene, she demonstrates her obedience and lack of experience in the world, outlining herself as inexperienced and in many ways dependent on her parents and she does not even give marriage a second thought but she does want to do what her mother asks. It is high time that Juliet go the route Lady Capulet went in her youth, the Count Paris is a bit of a bystander in the play, however, unwittingly mixed up in the drama between the families. The to-be couple only met once in the Friar Lawrences cell. His interest in her is based on her social standing and her familys vast wealth. He politely and nobly asks Capulet for her hand, and apparently would like her to begin bearing his children as soon as physically possible, Younger than she are happy mothers made. Juliet, on the hand, has no interest in becoming a wife. Even her father at first considers her too young to settle down and this may be a reflection on his feelings about his own wife, who might have been happier waiting a few years before marrying him
Juliet Capulet
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The balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet as depicted by
Ford Madox Brown in an 1870 painting
Juliet Capulet
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Juliet by
Philip H. Calderon
Juliet Capulet
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Juliet's purported balcony, in Verona. Beneath it, on the walls, there are love letters.
Juliet Capulet
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The entrance wall known as Juliet's wall
26.
Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany
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German Crown Prince Wilhelm, full name Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst, was the last Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire. He was born on 6 May 1882 in the Marmorpalais in Potsdam, during World War I, he commanded the 5th Army from 1914 to 1916 and was commander of Army Group German Crown Prince for the remainder of the war. Crown Prince Wilhelm became Head of the House of Hohenzollern on 4 June 1941 following the death of his father, Wilhelm was born on 6 May 1882 in the Marmorpalais of Potsdam in the Province of Brandenburg. He was the eldest son of Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor and his first wife, Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. When he was born, his great-grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm I, was the emperor and his grandfather, Crown Prince Frederick, was heir to the throne. He was the eldest of the Kaisers seven children, and his birth sparked an argument between his parents and grandmother. Before Wilhelm was born, his grandmother had expected to be asked to find a nurse, but since her son did everything he could to snub her. His mother was hurt and his grandmother, Queen Victoria, who was the younger Wilhelms great grandmother, when his great-grandfather and grandfather both died in 1888, six-year-old Wilhelm became the heir-apparent to the German and Prussian thrones. The German club BFC Preussen was also originally named BFC Friedrich Wilhelm in his honour, Kaiser Wilhelm II regarded his eldest son with contempt, mainly because of his many affairs with women. In 1901, during a visit to Blenheim Palace in England, Crown Prince Wilhelm, on the other hand, became noted for his public criticism of the politics of his father. In response, his father found Wilhelm a wife, Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, after initial interest in his wife, the Prince returned to his previous interest in other women. During his stay in Danzig he used to play tennis in Sopot. That afforded him a chance to many beautiful women, many of them coming from Warsaw to stay at the spa. In 1914, the Kaiser ordered the construction of Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam for Prince Wilhelm, completed in 1917, it became the main residence for the Crown Prince for a time. Wilhelm had been active in pushing German expansion, and sought a role on the outbreak of war. As Emperor, Wilhelms father instructed the Crown Prince to defer to the advice of his experienced Chief of Staff Konstantin Schmidt von Knobelsdorf. In October 1914 Wilhelm gave his first interview to a foreign correspondent and he blandly denied promoting military solutions to diplomatic problems, and said this in English, Undoubtedly this is the most stupid, senseless and unnecessary war of modern times. From August 1915 onwards, Wilhelm was given the role as commander of Army Group German Crown Prince
Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany
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The German Crown Prince.
Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany
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Crown Prince Wilhelm, aged 19, wearing civilian clothing
Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany
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Meeting Adolf Hitler in 1933
Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany
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Cecilienhof
27.
Monte Carlo Opera
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The Opéra de Monte-Carlo is an opera house, which is part of the Monte Carlo Casino located in the principality of Monaco. With the lack of cultural diversions available in Monaco in the 1870s, Prince Charles III, along with the Société des bains de mer, the main public entrance to the hall was from the casino, while Charles IIIs private entrance was on the western side. It opened in 1879 and became known as the Salle Garnier, after the architect Charles Garnier, the architect Charles Garnier also designed the Paris opera house now known as the Palais Garnier. Nevertheless, its style was heavily influenced by that of the Palais Garnier. The hall was inaugurated on 25 January 1879 with a performance by Sarah Bernhardt dressed as a nymph, the first opera performed there was Robert Planquettes Le Chevalier Gaston on 8 February 1879, followed by three additional operas in the first season. Conductor Arturo Vigna served as director of the Monte Carlo Opera from 1895-1903. This production formed part of an association between the company and Massenet and his operas, two of which were presented there posthumously. Apart from Massenet, composers whose works had their first performances at Monte Carlo included, Saint-Saëns, Mascagni, indeed, since its inauguration, the theatre has hosted 45 world premiere productions of operas. René Blum was retained to found the Ballet de lOpéra, the Golden Age of the Salle Garnier has passed, since small companies with small houses are not able to mount highly expensive productions. Nonetheless, the present day company still presents a season containing five or six operas, twice in its 130-year history the Opéra was transformed into a spectacular venue to host gala-dinners. The first occasion was in 1966 for the celebration of centenary of Monte-Carlo hosted by Grace Kelly and Rainier III, the Opera was transformed for the third time on 27 July 2013 to host the Love Ball, a fundraising gala event organised by the Naked Heart Foundation. Category, Opera world premieres at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo Mondial du Théâtre Notes Sources Bonillo, Jean-Lucien, Charles Garnier and Gustave Eiffel on the French and Italian Rivieras, The Dream of Reason. Inventaires in Bonillo et al. pp. 186–205, the Splendour of the Garnier Rooms at the Monte Carlo Casino in Bonillo et al. Opera, The Guide to Western Europes Great Houses, santa Fe, New Mexico, John Muir Publications
Monte Carlo Opera
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Seaside facade of the Salle Garnier, home of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Monte Carlo Opera
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Auditorium and stage (c. 1879)
Monte Carlo Opera
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Royal box and corner boxes (c. 1900)
28.
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
Metropolitan Opera
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The
Metropolitan Opera House at
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
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A full house at the old Metropolitan Opera House, seen from the rear of the stage, at a concert by pianist
Josef Hofmann, November 28, 1937
Metropolitan Opera
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Auditorium of the Metropolitan Opera House at
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Metropolitan Opera
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The gold curtain in the auditorium
29.
Giacomo Puccini
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Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian opera composer who has been called the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi. Puccinis early work was rooted in traditional late-19th-century romantic Italian opera, later, he successfully developed his work in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents. Puccinis most renowned works are La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, Puccini was born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini in Lucca in Tuscany, in 1858. He was one of nine children of Michele Puccini and Albina Magi, the Puccini family was established in Lucca as a local musical dynasty by Puccinis great-great grandfather – also named Giacomo. This first Giacomo Puccini was maestro di cappella of the Cattedrale di San Martino in Lucca and he was succeeded in this position by his son, Antonio Puccini, and then by Antonios son Domenico, and Domenicos son Michele. Each of these men studied music at Bologna, and some additional musical studies elsewhere. Domenico Puccini studied for a time under Giovanni Paisiello, each composed music for the church. In addition, Domenico composed several operas, and Michele composed one opera, Puccinis father Michele enjoyed a reputation throughout northern Italy, and his funeral was an occasion of public mourning, at which the then-famed composer Giovanni Pacini conducted a Requiem. However, when Michele Puccini died in 1864, his son Giacomo was only six years old, as a child, he nevertheless participated in the musical life of the Cattedrale di San Martino, as a member of the boys choir and later as a substitute organist. Puccini was given an education at the seminary of San Michele in Lucca. One of Puccinis uncles, Fortunato Magi, supervised his musical education, Puccini got a diploma from the Pacini School of Music in Lucca in 1880, having studied there with his uncle Fortunato, and later with Carlo Angeloni, who had also instructed Alfredo Catalani. Puccini studied at the conservatory for three years, sharing a room with Pietro Mascagni, in 1880, at the age of 21, Puccini composed his Mass, which marks the culmination of his familys long association with church music in his native Lucca. Puccini wrote a piece called the Capriccio sinfonica as a thesis composition for the Milan Conservatory. Puccinis teachers Ponchielli and Bazzini were impressed by the work, and it was performed at a student concert at the conservatory on 14 July 1883, conducted by Franco Faccio. Puccinis work was reviewed in the Milanese publication Perseveranza. After the premiere of the Capriccio sinfonica, Ponchielli and Puccini discussed the possibility that Puccinis next work might be an opera, Ponchielli invited Puccini to stay at his villa, where Puccini was introduced to another young man named Fernando Fontana. Puccini and Fontana agreed to collaborate on an opera, for which Fontana would provide the libretto, the work, Le Villi, was entered into a competition sponsored by the Sozogno music publishing company in 1883. Although it did not win, Le Villi was later staged at the Teatro Dal Verme, G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers assisted with the premier by printing the libretto without charge
Giacomo Puccini
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Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
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Puccini's birthplace, seen in 1984
Giacomo Puccini
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Original poster for Puccini's
Tosca
Giacomo Puccini
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Puccini photographed in 1908
30.
Madama Butterfly
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Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The original version of the opera, in two acts, had its premiere on 17 February 1904 at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Puccini revised the opera, splitting Act II into two and making other changes. Success ensued, starting with the first performance on 28 May 1904 in Brescia, Madama Butterfly is a staple of the operatic repertoire around the world, ranked 6th by Operabase, Puccinis La bohème and Tosca rank 3rd and 5th. Puccini wrote five versions of the opera, the original two-act version, which was presented at the world premiere at La Scala on 17 February 1904, was withdrawn after the disastrous premiere. Puccini then substantially rewrote it, this time in three acts and this second version was performed on 28 May 1904 in Brescia, where it was a great success. It was this version that premiered in the United States in 1906, first in Washington, D. C. in October. In 1906, Puccini wrote a version, which was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In 1907, Puccini made several changes in the orchestral and vocal scores, and this became the fourth version, which was performed in Paris. In 1907, Puccini made his final revisions to the opera in a fifth version, however, the original 1904 version is occasionally performed, such as for the opening of La Scalas season on 7 December 2016, with Riccardo Chailly conducting. The first performance in New York took place on 12 November of the year at the Garden Theatre. Three years later, the first Australian performance was presented at the Theatre Royal in Sydney on 26 March 1910, between 1915 and 1920, Japans best-known opera singer Tamaki Miura won international fame for her performances as Cio-Cio-san. A memorial to this singer, along one to Puccini, can be found in the Glover Garden in the port city of Nagasaki. In 1904, a U. S. Naval officer named Pinkerton rents a house on a hill in Nagasaki, Japan, for himself and his soon-to-be wife, Butterfly. She is a 15-year-old Japanese girl whom he is marrying for convenience, since he intends to leave her once he finds a proper American wife, the wedding is to take place at the house. Butterfly had been so excited to marry an American that she had secretly converted to Christianity. Pinkerton and Butterfly sing a duet and prepare to spend their first night together. Three years later, Butterfly is still waiting for Pinkerton to return and her maid Suzuki keeps trying to convince her that he is not coming back, but Butterfly will not listen to her. Goro, the broker who arranged her marriage, keeps trying to marry her off again
Madama Butterfly
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Giacomo Puccini
Madama Butterfly
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Geraldine Farrar as Madama Butterfly, 1907
Madama Butterfly
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Original poster
Madama Butterfly
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Anna May Wong holding the child in the 1922 film
The Toll of the Sea
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