1.
Pesaro
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Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the Marche, Pesaro is known as City of Bicycle, thanks to its big net of bicycle paths. The city received this award by Legambiente, the most important ecologist society in Italy, in 2015 and it is also known as City of Music thanks to the bond with Gioacchino Rossini, the famous composer born in Pesaro. For this reason, in 2015, the Italian Government officially candidate Pesaro as Creative City in the group of World Heritage Sites of UNESCO, fishery, furniture industry and tourism are the main strengths of the local economy. The city was founded as Pisaurum by the Romans in 184 BC as colony in the territory of the Picentes, a settlement of the Picentes tribe has been found at Novilara. The northern Picentes were invaded in the 4th century BC by the Gallic Senones, earlier by the Etruscans, within it the Gauls at least were still distinct, as the Romans separated them out and expelled them from the country. Under the Roman administration Pesaro, a hub across the Via Flaminia, became an important center of trading, after the fall of the Western Empire, Pesaro was occupied by the Ostrogoths, and destroyed by Vitigis in the course of the Gothic War. Hastily rebuilt five years later after the Byzantine reconquest, it formed the so-called Pentapolis, after the Lombard and Frankish conquests of that city, Pesaro became part of the Papal States. During the Renaissance it was ruled successively by the houses of Malatesta, Sforza, in 1475, a legendary wedding took place in Pesaro, when Costanzo Sforza and Camilla DAragona married. On 11 September 1860 Piedmontese troops entered the city, and Pesaro was subsequently annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy, rocca Costanza - Massive castle built by Costanzo I Sforza, it has a square plan with four cylindrical corner towers and a wide dry moat. Its sunken court is the precedent for the more famous one at the Roman Villa Giulia. Rooms are frescoed by prominent Mannerist painters Bronzino, Francesco Menzocchi, Girolamo Genga, mura Roveresche - Della Rovere Walls, demolished in the early 20th century), only two gates, Porta del Ponte and Porta Rimini, and a short section remain. Birthplace of Gioacchino Rossini- Now a museum dedicated to the composer and it has a museum with manifestoes, prints, portraits and his spinet. Among the masterpieces is the Pesaro Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini, oliveriani Museum and Library- Archaeological Collection and Manuscript Library, founded in 1756 by Annibale degli Abati Olivieri. Cathedral of Pesaro Romanesque-Gothic Basilica built over remains of a late Roman edifice, the façade, in Romanesque-Gothic style, is unfinished, it has a simple ogival portal surmounted by a band of small arches. A recent restoration has brought to light floor mosaics, the Baroque Sanctuary of Beata Vergine del Carmelo. Rossini Opera Festival has taken place every summer since 1980 in Pesaro, Pesaro hosts the home games of Victoria Libertas basketball team, better known across Europe as Scavolini Pesaro. Adriatic Arena, third biggest Italian indoor arena behind Mediolanum Forum in Milan, among the town industries is the motocross and enduro brand of TM Racing, a small manufacturer of race-ready motorbikes based in the coastal town since 1978
2.
Papal States
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
3.
Passy
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Passy is an area of Paris, France, located in the 16th arrondissement, on the Right Bank. It is traditionally home to many of the citys wealthiest residents, Passy was a commune on the outskirts of Paris. In 1658, hot springs were discovered around which spa facilities were developed and this attracted Parisian society and English visitors, some of whom made the area, which combined attractive countryside with both modest houses and fine residences, their winter retreat. The population was 2,400 in 1836,4,545 in 1841, in 1861 the population was 11,431. Passys population was 17,594 when it was absorbed into Paris along with other communities in 1860. 1917), American activist Passy was the home of Benjamin Franklin during the nine years that he lived in France during the American Revolutionary War, for much of this time, he was a lodger in the home of Monsieur de Chaumont. Franklin established a printing press in his lodgings to print pamphlets. He called it the Passy Press, among his printing projects, he produced comics he called Bagatelles and passports. He developed a typeface known as le Franklin and he also printed a 1782 treatise by Pierre-André Gargaz titled A Project of Universal and Perpetual Peace, which laid out a vision for maintaining a permanent peace in Europe. It proposed a central governing council composed of representatives of all the nations of Europe to arbitrate international disputes and he also worked on his scientific projects at a laboratory he shared with others, which had been installed by Louis XV in the Château de la Muette. When Franklin returned to America, the new American Ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson, wrote, When he left Passy, it seemed as if the village had lost its patriarch. Les Artistes de Passy consisted of a grouping of avant-garde artistes. Albert Gleizes chose to Passy as the subject of this painting, there is now a rue Benjamin Franklin and a square de Yorktown near the Trocadéro. A lively street in the area is Rue de Passy, which goes from La Muette to the Place de Costa Rica just behind the Trocadéro and it has boutiques and chain stores along its length. Honoré de Balzac lived and wrote in Passy, and his house is now a museum, the apartment in which Marlon Brando trysts with Maria Schneider in Bernardo Bertoluccis 1972 film Last Tango in Paris was located in Passy. Auteuil-Neuilly-Passy Théodore Année Madame Brillon Media related to Passy, Paris at Wikimedia Commons
4.
Paris
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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
5.
Second French Empire
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The Second French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France. The structure of the French government during the Second Empire was little changed from the First, but Emperor Napoleon III stressed his own imperial role as the foundation of the government. He had so often, while in prison or in exile and his answer was to organize a system of government based on the principles of the Napoleonic Idea. This meant that the emperor, the elect of the people as the representative of the democracy, ruled supreme. He himself drew power and legitimacy from his role as representative of the great Napoleon I of France, the anti-parliamentary French Constitution of 1852 instituted by Napoleon III on 14 January 1852, was largely a repetition of that of 1848. All executive power was entrusted to the emperor, who, as head of state, was responsible to the people. The people of the Empire, lacking democratic rights, were to rely on the benevolence of the rather than on the benevolence of politicians. He was to nominate the members of the council of state, whose duty it was to prepare the laws, and of the senate, a body permanently established as a constituent part of the empire. One innovation was made, namely, that the Legislative Body was elected by universal suffrage and this new political change was rapidly followed by the same consequence as had attended that of Brumaire. The press was subjected to a system of cautionnements and avertissements, in order to counteract the opposition of individuals, a surveillance of suspects was instituted. In the same way public instruction was strictly supervised, the teaching of philosophy was suppressed in the lycées, for seven years France had no democratic life. The Empire governed by a series of plebiscites, up to 1857 the Opposition did not exist, from then till 1860 it was reduced to five members, Darimon, Émile Ollivier, Hénon, Jules Favre and Ernest Picard. On 2 December 1851 Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who had been elected President of the Republic and he thus became sole ruler of France, and re-established universal suffrage, previously abolished by the Assembly. His decisions and the extension of his mandate for 10 years were popularly endorsed by a referendum later that month that attracted an implausible 92 percent support. A new constitution was enacted in January 1852 which made Louis-Napoléon president for 10 years, however, he was not content with merely being an authoritarian president. Almost as soon as he signed the new document into law, in response to officially-inspired requests for the return of the empire, the Senate scheduled a second referendum in November, which passed with 97 percent support. As with the December 1851 referendum, most of the yes votes were manufactured out of thin air, the empire was formally re-established on 2 December 1852, and the Prince-President became Napoléon III, Emperor of the French. The constitution concentrated so much power in his hands that the only changes were to replace the word president with the word emperor
6.
Composer
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A composer is a person who creates or writes music, which can be vocal music, instrumental music or music which combines both instruments and voices. The core meaning of the term refers to individuals who have contributed to the tradition of Western classical music through creation of works expressed in written musical notation, many composers are also skilled performers, either as singers, instrumentalists, and/or conductors. Examples of composers who are well known for their ability as performers include J. S. Bach, Mozart. In many popular genres, such as rock and country. For a singer or instrumental performer, the process of deciding how to perform music that has previously composed and notated is termed interpretation. Different performers interpretations of the work of music can vary widely, in terms of the tempos that are chosen. Composers and songwriters who present their own music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others, although a musical composition often has a single author, this is not always the case. A piece of music can also be composed with words, images, or, in the 20th and 21st century, a culture eventually developed whereby faithfulness to the composers written intention came to be highly valued. This musical culture is almost certainly related to the esteem in which the leading classical composers are often held by performers. The movement might be considered a way of creating greater faithfulness to the original in works composed at a time that expected performers to improvise. In Classical music, the composer typically orchestrates her own compositions, in some cases, a pop songwriter may not use notation at all, and instead compose the song in her mind and then play or record it from memory. In jazz and popular music, notable recordings by influential performers are given the weight that written scores play in classical music. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music. In the development of European classical music, the function of composing music initially did not have greater importance than that of performing it. The preservation of individual compositions did not receive attention and musicians generally had no qualms about modifying compositions for performance. In as much as the role of the composer in western art music has seen continued solidification, for instance, in certain contexts the line between composer and performer, sound designer, arranger, producer, and other roles, can be quite blurred. The term composer is often used to refer to composers of music, such as those found in classical, jazz or other forms of art. In popular and folk music, the composer is usually called a songwriter and this is distinct from a 19th-century conception of instrumental composition, where the work was represented solely by a musical score to be interpreted by performers
7.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
8.
Religious music
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Religious music is music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. Ritual music is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual, according to some scholars, the earliest music in the Christian Church came from Jewish worship music, with some additional Syriac influence. It is believed that this music lay somewhere between singing and speaking, or speaking with an understood ritual cadence, however, there is another opinion that the roots of early Christian music come from the early ascetic monastic orders. Hindu music is created for or influenced by Hinduism. The earliest synagogal music was based on the system as that in the Temple in Jerusalem. Shintō music is music for Shinto which is the native religion of Japan. Buddhist music is music for Buddhist ceremony or meditation, Zoroastrian music is a genre of music that accompanies Zoroastrian traditions and rites. Church music Gospel music Liturgical music Music and politics Secular music Spiritual World Sacred Music Festival Conomos, early Christian and Byzantine Music, History and Performance. Reprinted Archdiocesan School of Byzantine Music, Greek Orthodox Archdioces of America,15 November 2012, from Age to Age, How Christians Have Celebrated the Eucharist. The Oxford History of Western Music, fertonani, Cesare, Raffaele Mellace, Cesare Toscani, eds. La Musica Sacra nella Milano del Settecento, Gregorian chant, liturgical music The Gregorian chant of the abbeys of Provence in France New England religious music Hibbas Web Anthology of Traditional Jewish Music Religious Music - Greek
9.
Chamber music
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Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a number of performers. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances, because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as the music of friends. Playing chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, that differ from the skills required for playing solo or symphonic works, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described chamber music as four rational people conversing. The analogy to conversation recurs in descriptions and analyses of chamber music compositions, from its earliest beginnings in the Medieval period to the present, chamber music has been a reflection of the changes in the technology and the society that produced it. During the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, instruments were used primarily as accompaniment for singers, String players would play along with the melody line sung by the singer. There were also purely instrumental ensembles, often of stringed precursors of the violin family, some analysts consider the origin of classical instrumental ensembles to be the sonata da camera and the sonata da chiesa. These were compositions for one to five or more instruments, the sonata da camera was a suite of slow and fast movements, interspersed with dance tunes, the sonata da chiesa was the same, but the dances were omitted. These forms gradually developed into the trio sonata of the Baroque – two treble instruments and an instrument, often with a keyboard or other chording instrument filling in the harmony. Both the bass instrument and the instrument would play the basso continuo part. During the Baroque period, chamber music as a genre was not clearly defined, often, works could be played on any variety of instruments, in orchestral or chamber ensembles. The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, sometimes composers mixed movements for chamber ensembles with orchestral movements. Telemanns Tafelmusik, for example, has five sets of movements for various combinations of instruments, Baroque chamber music was often contrapuntal, that is, each instrument played the same melodic materials at different times, creating a complex, interwoven fabric of sound. Because each instrument was playing essentially the same melodies, all the instruments were equal, in the trio sonata, there is often no ascendent or solo instrument, but all three instruments share equal importance. In the second half of the 18th century, tastes began to change, many preferred a new, lighter Galant style. And clearly defined melody and bass to the complexities of counterpoint, now a new custom arose that gave birth to a new form of chamber music, the serenade. Patrons invited street musicians to play evening concerts below the balconies of their homes, their friends, patrons and musicians commissioned composers to write suitable suites of dances and tunes, for groups of two to five or six players. These works were called serenades, nocturnes, divertimenti, or cassations, the young Joseph Haydn was commissioned to write several of these
10.
La cambiale di matrimonio
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La cambiale di matrimonio is a one-act operatic farsa comica by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. The libretto was based on the play by Camillo Federici and a libretto by Giuseppe Checcherini for Carlo Coccias 1807 opera. The opera debuted on 3 November 1810 at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice Composed in a few days when he was 18 years old, the overture, written when he was a student at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna, is an important part of the modern concert repertoire. As was to become typical of his career, the duet Dunque io son was later reused, to greater effect. After everyone leaves, Fanny arrives with her lover, Eduardo Milfort, Norton enters and informs the lovers of the impending marriage contract, but their conversation is interrupted by Mills entrance as the carriage arrives bearing the Canadian. Slook enters harassed by the servants who are trying to take his coat, Mill encourages Slook to talk to Fanny and to get to know her, but she remains quite hostile, trying to express her disinterest in marrying him with many buts. However, she is joined by Eduardo, and they both threaten to cut out Slooks eyes and puncture his veins. Slook departs to the safety of his room, Fanny and Eduardo to other quarters, as Clarina, before Slook comes back, Clarina expresses her experiences with love and, then upon his return, Norton informs him that the goods he is interested in acquiring are already mortgaged. Infuriated by this contractual double-crossing, Slook refuses to buy Fanny, however, he refuses to give a reason fearing retribution from the lovers. Mill then threatens Slook with the prospect of a duel for refusing to carry through with the contract he has incurred, Mill returns and prepares for his duel, although he fears that, if he dies, it may reflect poorly upon his reputation in the market. Slook reveals himself and clandestinely replaces a pistol with a pipe which Mill grabs. As they head to the field of battle, the rushes in. Finally Slook convinces Mill to allow the couple to marry and all ends happily, list of operas by Rossini Notes Sources Gossett, Philip, Brauner, Patricia, La cambiale di matrimonio in Holden, Amanda, The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York, Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4 Kennedy, Michael, La cambiale di matrimonio, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, retrieved 8 December 2013) Osborne, Charles, The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, Portland, Oregon, Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-71-3 Osborne, Richard, La cambiale, in Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5 Osborne, Richard, La Cambiale di matrimonio], Grove Music Online by subscription only. Warrack, John and West, Ewan, The Oxford Dictionary of Opera New York, ISBN 0-19-869164-5 Libretto, Deutsche Rossini Gesellschaft
11.
The Barber of Seville
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The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchaiss French comedy Le Barbier de Séville, the première of Rossinis opera took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome. Rossinis Barber has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, even after two hundred years, it remains a popular work. Rossinis opera recounts the events of the first of the three plays by French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais that revolve around the clever and enterprising character named Figaro. Mozarts opera Le nozze di Figaro, composed 30 years earlier in 1786, is based on the part of the Beaumarchais trilogy. The first Beaumarchais play was conceived as an opéra comique. The play as it is now known was premiered in 1775 by the Comédie-Française at the Théâtre des Tuileries in Paris, other operas based on the first play were composed by Giovanni Paisiello, by Nicolas Isouard in 1796, and then by Francesco Morlacchi in 1816. Though the work of Paisiello triumphed for a time, only Rossinis version has stood the test of time and continues to be a mainstay of operatic repertoire. On 11 November 1868, two days before Rossinis death, the composer Costantino DallArgine premiered an opera based on the libretto as Rossinis work. The premiere was not a failure, but critics condemned the audacity of the young composer, Rossini was well known for being remarkably productive, completing an average of two operas per year for 19 years, and in some years writing as many as four. The premiere of Rossinis opera at the Teatro Argentina in Rome was a failure, the audience hissed and jeered throughout. Furthermore, many of the audience were supporters of one of Rossinis rivals, Giovanni Paisiello, Paisiello had already composed The Barber of Seville and took Rossinis new version to be an affront to his version. In particular, Paisiello and his followers were opposed to the use of basso buffo, the second performance met with quite a different fate, becoming a roaring success. The original French play, Le Barbier de Séville, endured a similar story, poorly received at first and it was first performed in America on 3 May 1819 in English at the Park Theatre in New York. The cast of eight had three members of his family, including the 17-year-old Maria-Felicia, later known as Maria Malibran. The role of Rosina was originally written for a contralto, according to music critic Richard Osborne, writing in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, it is important to record the degree to which singers have sometimes distorted Rossini’s intentions. The most serious distortion has been the upward transposition of the role of Rosina,1820 at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris, where it was published. The singing lesson in act 2 has often turned into a show-stopping cabaret
12.
L'italiana in Algeri
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Litaliana in Algeri is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca. It premiered at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice on 22 May 1813, the music is characteristic of Rossinis style, remarkable for its fusion of sustained, manic energy with elegant, pristine melodies. Rossini wrote Litaliana in Algeri when he was 21, the opera was composed in either 18 or 27 days, depending on which source one believes. Rossini entrusted the composition of the recitatives as well as the aria Le femmine dItalia to an unknown collaborator, the opera is notable for Rossinis mixing of opera seria style with opera buffa. The overture is widely recorded and performed today, known for its opening of slow, quiet pizzicato basses. This surprise reflects Rossinis early admiration for Joseph Haydn, whose Symphony No.94 in G major, The Surprise Symphony, is so named for the same shocking, the work was first performed at the Teatro San Benedetto, Venice on 22 May 1813. It was a success and Rossini made progressive changes to the work for later performances in Vicenza, Milan and Naples. The opera was first presented in London at His Majestys Theatre on 28 January 1819 and it is performed regularly in the 21st Century with 48 productions being presented in 43 cities since January 2009. One notable production was given at The Santa Fe Opera in 2002 with Stephanie Blythe as Isabella. Place, Algiers Time, The past The palace of the Bey of Algiers Elvira accompanied by her slave Zulma regrets the loss of the love of her husband, the Turkish Bey Mustafà. Left alone with Haly, Captain of the Corsairs, Mustafà reveals his plan to marry Elvira off to Lindoro, the Bey is bored with his submissive harem, desiring a new challenge to his virility, he wants an Italian girl, and Haly must find one. Lindoro enters alone and sings about Isabella, his true love, Mustafà comes in to explain Lindoros impending marriage. The enthusiastic Bey describes the attractions of the match, while Lindoro struggles to refuse, the seashore A ship has been wrecked in a storm. Its passengers include Isabella, in search of Lindoro, and Taddeo, her travelling companion, Isabella enters with a sorrowful cavatina Cruda sorte. However she is not afraid and will master the situation, Haly and his men take them prisoner. She passes off Taddeo as her uncle, Haly is delighted to learn she is an Italian – exactly what the Bey wanted. Left to consider their fate, Isabella is irritated by Taddeos jealousy of Lindoro, the palace Back in the palace, Lindoro and Elvira do not wish to marry, but Mustafà offers Lindoro passage on a ship returning to Italy if he takes Elvira. Lindoro agrees, admitting a vague possibility of marrying her in Italy, Haly enters with news of the arrival of the Italian beauty
13.
La Cenerentola
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La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cendrillon by Charles Perrault, the opera was first performed in Romes Teatro Valle on 25 January 1817. Rossini composed La Cenerentola when he was 25 years old, following the success of The Barber of Seville the year before, La Cenerentola, which he completed in a period of three weeks, is considered to have some of his finest writing for solo voice and ensembles. The facsimile edition of the autograph has a different aria for Alidoro, Fa silenzio, odo un rumore, for an 1820 revival in Rome, Rossini wrote a bravura replacement, La, del ciel nellarcano profondo. Ferretti had been proposing, unsuccessfully, more than two different subjects. At Rossinis question about when he could have some verses ready to start working on, Ferretti answered, Rossini nodded, wrapped himself in his clothes and fell asleep. The impresarios will fight for staging it, as well as the primadonnas for being able to sing it. There are a number of recordings of the opera, and, as a staple of the operatic repertoire. In this variation of the traditional Cinderella story, the wicked stepmother is replaced by a wicked stepfather, the Fairy Godmother is replaced by Alidoro, who is a philosopher and is also the Princes tutor. Cinderella is identified not by her glass slipper but by her bracelet, time, Late 18th century – early 19th century Place, Italy Angelina is forced to work as the maid in the run-down house of her stepfather Don Magnifico. While his two mean, idle daughters, Clorinda and Tisbe, try on their gowns and jewelry, Clorinda and Tisbe want to send him away, but Cenerentola offers him bread and coffee. Courtiers arrive to announce that Prince Ramiro is looking for the most beautiful girl in the land to be his bride, Prince Ramiro arrives, disguised as his own valet in order to observe the women without them knowing. He is immediately struck with admiration for Cenerentola and she for him, Cenerentola has to leave when her stepsisters call her. Don Magnifico enters and Ramiro tells him the Prince will arrive shortly, the prince is actually Dandini, Ramiros valet in disguise. The stepsisters arrive and fawn gleefully over Dandini, who invites them to a ball at the Royal palace, Don Magnifico tells Cenerentola that she cannot accompany them to the ball, despite her pleading. Before leaving, Ramiro notices how badly Cenerentola is treated and his tutor, Alidoro, who had been at the house earlier disguised as the beggar, arrives still wearing his rags and asks for Don Magnificos third daughter. Magnifico denies she is alive, but when Alidoro is left alone with Cenerentola. He throws off his beggars clothes and identifies himself as a member of Prince Ramiros court, the stepsisters and Don Magnifico arrive at Prince Ramiros palace, with Dandini still posing as the Prince
14.
Tancredi
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Tancredi is a melodramma eroico in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi, based on Voltaires play Tancrède. The overture, borrowed from La pietra del paragone, is an example of Rossinis characteristic style and is regularly performed in concert. Richard Osborne proclaims it to be his fully fledged opera seria and it established him, more of less instantly, as Italys leading composer of contemporary opera. In this new ending, presented at the Teatro Comunale in Ferrara on 21 March 1813, Tancredi wins the battle but is mortally wounded, Argirio marries the lovers in time for Tancredi to die in his wifes arms. As has been stated by Philip Gossett and Patricia Brauner, it was the rediscovery of the score of this ending in 1974 that resulted in the version which is performed today. Other comedies had preceded Loccasione, but its success ensured a fifth opera for that house, other treatments of the Tancredi story had been prepared, the most recent being that of Stefano Pavesi in 1812. However, many of Rossinis formal inventions, seen in his earlier operas, are here incorporated with great effect. As Gossett notes The opera established a new synthesis, new compositional models, with, through. The revised ending for Ferrara, March,1813 This revised version of the opera, presented a month after its Venice premiere, the music for this ending was withdrawn, it disappeared, and was not discovered until 1976. Act 2 finale, Having come to find Tancredi, the knights of Syracuse enter along with Argirio, angrilly, Tancredi orders Amenaide to go to Solamirs camp, upset that she has come to disturb him. He leaves to go into battle, and shortly Argirio returns to report that the Syracusans have been victorious and he is carried in and learns from Argirio the truth about Amenaide just in time for Argirio to marry them. He then dies in her arms, according to Richard Osborne, the 1813 re-workings for Ferrara were not a success and Rossini withdrew the revision and, as was his habit, redistributed some of the music in later work. Following the discovery, the preparation of the edition for the Fondazione Rossini by Philip Gossett. 19th century Tancredi premiered in February 1813 at La Fenice in Venice with Adelaide Malanotte in the title role, the first two performances suffered because of vocal problems from its two female principals, but its success was assured over six performances into the following month. Philip Gossetts research in 1971 states that until about 1825 the musical text was rather fluid, the first Ricordi edition, which differs significantly from the later ones, corresponds to the Milanese version. But many other Italian cities saw the opera, including Florence, Padua, Livorno, Vicenza, Macerata, Camerino, Viterbo, Milan, outside of Italy, it was given in Corfù, Lisbon, and Geneva. The opera was first performed in England at the Kings Theatre in London on 4 May 1820 with Fanny Corri-Paltoni as Amenaide and its French premiere was given by the Théâtre-Lyrique Italien at the Salle Louvois in Paris on 23 April 1822 with Giuditta Pasta in the title role. It was seen in Portugal for the first time at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos on 18 September 1822 and was given its La Scala premiere on 8 November 1823 with Brigida Lorenzani as Tancredi
15.
Otello (Rossini)
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Otello is an opera in three acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Berio di Salsi. The work is based on a French adaptation of the story, the opera deviates heavily from Shakespeares version not only in that it takes place in Venice and not on Cyprus, but also in that the whole dramatic conflict develops in a different manner. The role of Iago is reduced to some degree, and it is much less diabolical than in the original or in Verdis Otello of 1887. In further contrast, the role of Rodrigo, of importance in Shakespeare and Verdi, is very prominent in Rossinis version and is assigned some of the most difficult. The roles of Otello, Iago, and Rodrigo are all composed for the tenor voice, Rossinis Otello is an important milestone in the development of opera as musical drama. It provided Giuseppe Verdi with a benchmark for his own adaptations of Shakespeare, a 1999 Opera Rara CD of the opera includes an alternative happy ending, a common practice with drama and opera at that period of the 19th century. 19th century The first performance took place at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples on 4 December 1816. It was first performed in Paris on 5 June 1821 at the Théâtre Italien, in London on 16 May 1822 at the Kings Theatre, and in New York on 7 February 1826 at the Park Theatre. During this period Iago was assigned to the Italian sometimes-second-tenor, sometimes-baritone Giovanola at the Théâtre Italien in Paris on 26 July 1823 with Giuditta Pasta as Desdemona, the Spanish baritone Manuel García, Jr. sang the role on his familys trip to the New York in 1826. French baritone Paul Barroilhet appeared in 1844 in Paris, where he interpolated the aria from Rossinis La donna del lago and his successor, Jean-Baptiste Faure, sang the role in 1871. A French printed edition from 1823 already shows Iagos part written in the bass clef, Operabase, the performance database, lists 20 performances of Rossinis Otello in the years 2013 and 2014, in 5 productions in different cities. In October 2012, Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico presented three performances of the opera, the first gave both the original and the alternative happy ending. Prior to the performances, the audience voted for the ending they preferred. Also in 2012, the opera was staged in Zurich by the Vlaamse Opera, the same production was given in Ghent and Antwerp in February and March 2014. Buxton Festival presented the opera in concert form in July 2014, place, Venice Time, End of the 18th Century According to the booklet of the Milanese representations of 1818, Otello, African to the service of Adria, victor returns from a battle against the Turks. A secret wedding ties him to Desdemona, daughter of his enemy, Elmiro Patrizio Veneto, already promised to Rodrigo, notes Sources Gossett, Philip, Brauner, Patricia, Otello in Holden, Amanda, The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York, Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4 Osborne, Charles, The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, ISBN0931340713 Osborne, Richard, Rossini, Ithaca, New York, Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-088-5 Osborne, Richard, Otello, in Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5 Senici, Emanuele, The Cambridge Companion to Rossini, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
16.
Semiramide
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Semiramide is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaires tragedy Semiramis, the opera was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on 3 February 1823. Semiramide was Rossinis final Italian opera and according to Richard Osborne, as in Tancredi, Rossis libretto was based on a Voltaire tragedy. The music took the form of a return to vocal traditions of Rossinis youth, the ensemble-scenes and choruses are of a high order, as is the orchestral writing, which makes full use of a large pit. After this splendid work, one of his finest in the genre, Rossini turned his back on Italy and moved to Paris. Apart from Il viaggio a Reims, which is still in Italian, after making his mark with a number of brilliant comic operas, Rossini turned more and more to serious opera. During the years 1813 until 1822 he wrote a series of them, mostly for the Teatro di San Carlo. One reason for his new interest in the genre was his connection with the great dramatic soprano Isabella Colbran. Work began with the librettist in October 1822, composer and librettist taking Voltaires story, actual composition took Rossini 33 days to complete the score. It reached London on 15 July 1824, was given its US premiere at the St. Charles Theatre in New Orleans on 1 May 1837, for 25 years after 1830, Giulia Grisi triumphed in the role notably in St Petersburg in 1849 and New York in 1854. By the late 1800s, the opera had virtually disappeared from the repertoire, the Metropolitan Opera revived Semiramide in 1892,1894, and 1895. 20th century and beyond It took until 1932 until the opera was revived in Rostock. Although the overture is one of several of Rossinis to be widely recorded and it starred Marilyn Horne as Arsace. In 2004, the opera was mounted in concert form by the Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna, time, Antiquity or Some 2,000 Years before the Christian era Place, Babylon Overture Semiramide has its own overture, which was almost certainly composed last. Unlike many operatic overtures of the day, it borrowed musical ideas from the opera itself, temple of Baal, Babylon The High Priest Oroe invites all to enter the temple, and Babylonians do so carrying offerings to Baal. Assur states that the day has come for the Queen to choose a successor, Idreno expresses surprise at Assurs aspirations and all express their individual concerns and fears. Semiramide enters to the acclaim of all, but Idreno and Assur individually speculate as to who will be chosen. They press the queen to announce her decision, but at the same time Semiramide herself is fearful about making that decision, suddenly, the temple is plunged into darkness and there is general consternation amidst fears of its imminent collapse
17.
La gazza ladra
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The composer Giaochino Rossini wrote quickly, and La gazza ladra was no exception. As such, The Thieving Magpie is best known for the overture, the unique inspiration in the melodies is extreme, famously used to bizarre and dramatic effect in Stanley Kubricks A Clockwork Orange. It was referenced by Haruki Murakami in his work The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle at the beginning of the book. This memorable section in Rossinis overture evokes the image of the main subject. The first performance of The Thieving Magpie was on 31 May 1817, at La Scala, the first performance of The Thieving Magpie in England was at the Kings Theatre, London, on 10 March 1821. As the French-language La pie voleuse, the operas first performance in the United States was at the Théâtre dOrléans, New Orleans, in 1941, Riccardo Zandonai composed a version of The Thieving Magpie for a revival of the opera in Pesaro. In 1979, Alberto Zedda edited Rossinis original composition of the opera for publication by the Fondazione Rossini, in 2013, the Bronx Opera of New York City performed an English-language version of La gazza ladra. At the house of Fabrizio Vingradito and his wife Lucia there is joy for the imminent return of their son Giannetto from the war. One of the servants, Ninetta, is in love with Giannetto, Isacco, a local pedlar, visits and asks about Ninetta, but Pippo, Fabrizios manservant, sends him away. Giannetto arrives and goes inside with Lucia while Ninetta prepares for the party, once they have gone, Ninetta’s father, Fernando Villabella, arrives, also from the war. However, he was sentenced to death after fighting with his captain and is now a deserter and he asks his daughter to sell two pieces of family silver to go towards his expenses while he is on the run. The Mayor arrives with intent on seducing Ninetta, and she claims that her father is just some vagrant, the Mayor continues to force his attentions on Ninetta, at which Fernando almost reveals himself in anger. The three leave, and a magpie flies down and steals one of Lucia’s silver spoons, Isacco passes by again, and Ninetta sells him the silver her father had entrusted to her. Giannetto and others return, and Lucia notices that a spoon is missing, the Mayor starts an immediate investigation, stating the draconian penalty for domestic theft, death. Lucia and the Mayor accuse Ninetta, who in her distress drops the money she had exchanged from Isacco, the pedlar is brought back and reports that he has already sold on the spoon, but he recalls the inscription F. V. initials shared by Fabrizio and Fernando. The stunned Ninetta, desperate to protect her father, is unable to refute the accusations, Antonio, the prison warder, takes pity on Ninetta and says that he will get a message to Pippo and let Giannetto visit her. Ninetta convinces Giannetto that she is innocent, the Mayor now arrives and tells Ninetta that if she accepts his advances he will get her freed – she replies that she would rather die. The Mayor is called away, but Antonio has heard all, Ninetta asks Pippo to sell a gold cross and put some money for her father in an agreed hiding place – a chestnut tree
18.
Libretto
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A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata. Libretto, from Italian, is the diminutive of the word libro, sometimes other language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, livret for French works and Textbuch for German. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. The relationship of the librettist to the composer in the creation of a work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources. In the context of a modern English language musical theatre piece, Libretti for operas, oratorios and cantatas in the 17th and 18th centuries generally were written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Metastasio was one of the most highly regarded librettists in Europe and his libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th-century librettist was Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote the libretti for three of Mozarts greatest operas, as well as for other composers. Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer, Auber, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. The French writers duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote a number of opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach, Jules Massenet. Arrigo Boito, who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli, the libretto is not always written before the music. Some composers wrote their own libretti, Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Hector Berlioz, too, wrote the libretti for two of his works, La Damnation de Faust and Les Troyens. Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchners play Woyzeck for the libretto of Wozzeck, sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer, this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Belsky, or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics, thus, a musical such as Fiddler on the Roof has a composer, a lyricist and the writer of the book. In rare cases, the composer writes everything except the dance arrangements - music, lyrics and libretto, Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. A famous case of the latter is Wagners 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris, since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. The libretto of a musical, on the hand, is almost always written in prose
19.
William Tell (opera)
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Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Étienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis. Based on Friedrich Schillers play William Tell, which drew on the William Tell legend, fabio Luisi said that Rossini planned for William Tell to be his last opera even as he composed it. The overture, in four sections and featuring a depiction of a storm as well as a vivacious finale, the March of the Swiss Soldiers, is often played. Charles Malherbe, archivist at the Paris Opéra, discovered the original score of the opera at a secondhand book sellers shop. It was first performed by the Paris Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier on 3 August 1829, but within three performances cuts were being made and after a year only three acts were performed. The operas length, roughly four hours of music, and casting requirements, when performed, the opera is often cut. Performances have been given in both French and Italian, political concerns have also contributed to the varying fortunes of the work. In Italy, because the work glorified a revolutionary figure against authority, the opera encountered difficulties with the Italian censors, the Teatro San Carlo produced the opera in 1833, but then did not give another production for around 50 years. The first Venice production, at the Teatro La Fenice, was not until 1856, by contrast, in Vienna, in spite of censorship problems there, the Vienna Court Opera gave 422 performances over the years 1830–1907. In New York, William Tell was first presented on 19 September 1831 and it was revived at the Metropolitan Opera in 1923 with Ponselle and Martinelli, and there were revivals during the 1930s in Milan, Rome, Paris, Berlin and Florence. When the opera was performed at Gran Teatre del Liceu in 1893, in the later 20th century there were major productions in Florence, Geneva, La Scala, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Covent Garden, and then Opéra Bastille as well as at the Sportspalace in Pesaro. In 2010 there was an important revival of the opera, when it opened the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilias season and this performance was of the French version, with some cuts to particularly the fourth act. The performance was well reviewed, and marked the first full performance of the work in the history of the Proms. According to an anecdote, when an admirer told the composer that he had heard his opera the previous night, another version of the story refers only to Act II. In 1864 Offenbach quoted the patriotic trio from Act 2, Lorsque la Grèce est un champ de carnage in La Belle Hélène, today, the opera is remembered mostly for its famous overture. Its high-energy finale, March Of The Swiss Soldiers, is particularly familiar through its use in the American radio and television shows of The Lone Ranger. The overture has four parts, each linked to the next, The Prelude is written only for the section, the double basses. The Storm is a dynamic section played by the orchestra, with backup from the trombones
20.
William Tell Overture
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The William Tell Overture is the overture to the opera William Tell, whose music was composed by Gioachino Rossini. William Tell premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossinis 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement, although he continued to compose cantatas, sacred music, the overture is in four parts, each following without pause. There has been repeated use of parts of this overture in both music and popular media, most famously as the theme music for The Lone Ranger in radio, television. It was also used as the music for the British television series The Adventures of William Tell. Franz Liszt prepared a piano transcription of the overture in 1838 which became a staple of his concert repertoire, there are also transcriptions by other composers, including versions by Louis Gottschalk for two and four pianos and a duet for piano and violin. The overture, which lasts for approximately 12 minutes, paints a picture of life in the Swiss Alps. It was described by Hector Berlioz, who usually loathed Rossinis works, but unlike an actual symphony with its distinct movements, the overtures parts transition from one to the next without a break. Prelude, Dawn The Prelude is a passage in E major. It begins in E minor with a cello which is in turn answered by the remaining cellos. An impending storm is hinted at by two very quiet timpani rolls resembling distant thunder, the section ends with a very high sustained note played by the first cello. Storm This dynamic section in E minor is played by the full orchestra and it begins with the violins and violas. Their phrases are punctuated by short wind instrument interventions of three each, first by the piccolo, flute and oboes, then by the clarinets. The storm breaks out in full with the entrance of the French horns, trumpets, trombones, the volume and number of instruments gradually decreases as the storm subsides. The section ends with the flute playing alone, Ranz des Vaches This pastorale section in G major signifying the calm after the storm begins with a Ranz des Vaches or Call to the Cows, featuring the cor anglais. The horn then plays in alternating phrases with the flute, culminating in a duet with the triangle accompanying them in the background, the melody appears several times in the opera, including the final act, and takes on the character of a leitmotif. This segment is used in animated cartoons to signify daybreak. It alludes to the act, which recounts the Swiss soldierss victorious battle to liberate their homeland from Austrian repression. Although there are no horses or cavalry charges in the opera, this segment is used in popular media to denote galloping horses
21.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Born in Salzburg, he showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood, already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, while visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame, during his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons and he composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, Ludwig van Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote, posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria, née Pertl and this was the capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastic principality in what is now Austria, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy and his elder sister was Maria Anna Mozart, nicknamed Nannerl. Mozart was baptized the day after his birth, at St. Ruperts Cathedral in Salzburg, the baptismal record gives his name in Latinized form, as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He generally called himself Wolfgang Amadè Mozart as an adult, Leopold Mozart, a native of Augsburg, Germany, was a minor composer and an experienced teacher. In 1743, he was appointed as fourth violinist in the establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian. Four years later, he married Anna Maria in Salzburg, Leopold became the orchestras deputy Kapellmeister in 1763. During the year of his sons birth, Leopold published a textbook, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule. When Nannerl was 7, she began lessons with her father. Years later, after her brothers death, she reminisced, He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. In the fourth year of his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and he could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time. At the age of five, he was composing little pieces
22.
Ostinato
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In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, usually at the same pitch. The repeating idea may be a pattern, part of a tune. Both ostinatos and ostinati are accepted English plural forms, the reflecting the words Italian etymology. If the cadence may be regarded as the cradle of tonality, within the context of film music, Claudia Gorbman defines an obstinate as a repeated melodic or rhythmic figure that propel scenes that lack dynamic visual action. Ostinato plays an important part in improvised music, in which it is referred to as a riff or a vamp. A favorite technique of contemporary writers, ostinati are often used in modal and Latin jazz. Ostinato are used in 20th-century music to stabilize groups of pitches, as in Stravinskys The Rite of Spring Introduction and Augurs of Spring. A famous type of ostinato, called the Rossini crescendo, owes its name to a crescendo that underlies a persistent musical pattern and this style was emulated by other bel canto composers, especially Vincenzo Bellini, and later by Wagner. Applicable in homophonic and contrapuntal textures they are repetitive rhythmic-harmonic schemes, more familiar as accompanimental melodies, the techniques appeal to composers from Debussy to avant-garde composers until at least the 1970s. Lies in part in the need for unity created by the abandonment of functional chord progressions to shape phrases. Relentless, repetitive character help to establish and confirm the modal center and their popularity may also be justified by their ease as well as range of use, though. Ostinato must be employed judiciously, as its overuse can lead to monotony. Ground bass or basso ostinato is a type of form in which a bass line. Aaron Copland describes basso ostinato as, the easiest to recognize of the variation forms wherein. A long phrase—either an accompanimental figure or an actual melody—is repeated over and over again in the bass part, however, he cautions, it might more properly be termed a musical device than a musical form. Many instruments south of the Sahara Desert play ostinato melodies and these include lamellophones such as the mbira, as well as xylophones like the balafon, the bikutsi, and the gyil. Ostinato figures are also played on string instruments such as the kora, gankoqui bell ensembles, often, African ostinatos contain offbeats or cross-beats, that contradict the metric structure. Other African ostinatos generate complete cross-rhythms by sounding both the main beats and cross-beats, in the following example, a gyil sounds the three-against-two cross-rhythm
23.
Dynamics (music)
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In music, dynamics are instructions in musical notation to the performer about the loudness at which to play a note or phrase. More generally, dynamics may also include aspects of the execution of a given piece. The two basic dynamic indications in music are, p or piano, meaning soft, more subtle degrees of loudness or softness are indicated by, mp, standing for mezzo-piano, meaning half soft. Mf, standing for mezzo-forte, meaning half loud, più p, standing for più piano and meaning softer. Più f, standing for più forte and meaning louder, use of up to three consecutive fs or ps is also common, pp, standing for pianissimo and meaning very soft. Ff, standing for fortissimo and meaning very loud, ppp, standing for pianississimo and meaning very very soft. Fff, standing for fortississimo and meaning very loud. Some pieces contain dynamic designations with more than three consecutive fs or ps, in Holsts The Planets, ffff occurs twice in Mars and once in Uranus often punctuated by organ and fff occurs several times throughout the work. It also appears in Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No,4, and in Liszts Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale Ad nos, ad salutarem undam. Igor Stravinsky used ffff at the end of the finale of the Firebird Suite, ffff is also found in a prelude by Rachmaninoff, op. 3-2. Shostakovich even went as loud as fffff in his fourth symphony, gustav Mahler, in the third movement of his Seventh Symphony, gives the celli and basses a marking of fffff, along with a footnote directing pluck so hard that the strings hit the wood. On another extreme, Carl Nielsen, in the movement of his Symphony No. 5, marked a passage for woodwinds a diminuendo to ppppp, another more extreme dynamic is in György Ligetis Études No. 13, which has at one point a ffffff and progresses to a ffffffff, in the baritone passage Era la notte from his opera Otello, Verdi uses pppp. Steane and others suggest that such markings are in reality a strong reminder to less than subtle singers to at least sing softly rather than an instruction to the singer actually to attempt a pppp, dynamic indications of this kind are relative, not absolute. Mp does not indicate a level of volume, it merely indicates that music in a passage so marked should be a little louder than p. Interpretations of dynamic levels are mostly to the performer, in the Barber Piano Nocturne. Another instance of performers discretion in this piece occurs when the hand is shown to crescendo to a f
24.
Adriatic Sea
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The Adriatic Sea /ˌeɪdriˈætᵻk/ is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula and the Apennine Mountains from the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto to the northwest, the countries with coasts on the Adriatic are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro and Slovenia. The Adriatic contains over 1,300 islands, mostly located along its eastern, Croatian and it is divided into three basins, the northern being the shallowest and the southern being the deepest, with a maximum depth of 1,233 metres. The Otranto Sill, a ridge, is located at the border between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. The prevailing currents flow counterclockwise from the Strait of Otranto, along the eastern coast, tidal movements in the Adriatic are slight, although larger amplitudes are known to occur occasionally. The Adriatics salinity is lower than the Mediterraneans because the Adriatic collects a third of the water flowing into the Mediterranean. The surface water temperatures range from 30 °C in summer to 12 °C in winter. The Adriatic Sea sits on the Apulian or Adriatic Microplate, which separated from the African Plate in the Mesozoic era, the plates movement contributed to the formation of the surrounding mountain chains and Apennine tectonic uplift after its collision with the Eurasian plate. In the Late Oligocene, the Apennine Peninsula first formed, separating the Adriatic Basin from the rest of the Mediterranean, all types of sediment are found in the Adriatic, with the bulk of the material transported by the Po and other rivers on the western coast. The western coast is alluvial or terraced, while the eastern coast is indented with pronounced karstification. There are dozens of protected areas in the Adriatic, designed to protect the seas karst habitats. The sea is abundant in flora and fauna—more than 7,000 species are identified as native to the Adriatic, many of them endemic, rare and threatened ones. The Adriatics shores are populated by more than 3.5 million people, the earliest settlements on the Adriatic shores were Etruscan, Illyrian, and Greek. By the 2nd century BC, the shores were under Romes control, following Italian unification, the Kingdom of Italy started an eastward expansion that lasted until the 20th century. Following World War I and the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, the former disintegrated during the 1990s, resulting in four new states on the Adriatic coast. Italy and Albania agreed on their maritime boundary in 1992, Fisheries and tourism are significant sources of income all along the Adriatic coast. Adriatic Croatias tourism industry has grown faster economically than the rest of the Adriatic Basins, maritime transport is also a significant branch of the areas economy—there are 19 seaports in the Adriatic that each handle more than a million tonnes of cargo per year. The largest Adriatic seaport by annual cargo turnover is the Port of Trieste, in the southeast, the Adriatic Sea connects to the Ionian Sea at the 72-kilometre wide Strait of Otranto
25.
Singing
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Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist, Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists, Singers may perform as soloists, or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised and it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice, if practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific genre, such as classical or rock. They typically take voice training provided by teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort, exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles, the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming, humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, volume, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body and an individuals size, Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This is known as vocal resonation, another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singers Formant and it has also been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa. The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds, Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds
26.
French Revolution
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Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
27.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
28.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
29.
Bologna
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Bologna is the largest city of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, located in the heart of an area of about one million. The first settlements back to at least 1000 BC. The city has been a centre, first under the Etruscans. Home to the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, founded in 1088, Bologna is also an important transportation crossroad for the roads and trains of Northern Italy, where many important mechanical, electronic and nutritional industries have their headquarters. According to the most recent data gathered by the European Regional Economic Growth Index of 2009, Bologna is the first Italian city, Bologna is home to numerous prestigious cultural, economic and political institutions as well as one of the most impressive trade fair districts in Europe. In 2000 it was declared European capital of culture and in 2006, the city of Bologna was selected to participate in the Universal Exposition of Shanghai 2010 together with 45 other cities from around the world. Bologna is also one of the wealthiest cities in Italy, often ranking as one of the top cities in terms of quality of life in the country, after a long decline, Bologna was reborn in the 5th century under Bishop Petronius. According to legend, St. Petronius built the church of S. Stefano. After the fall of Rome, Bologna was a stronghold of the Exarchate of Ravenna in the Po plain. In 728, the city was captured by the Lombard king Liutprand, the Germanic conquerors formed a district called addizione longobarda near the complex of S. Stefano. Charlemagne stayed in this district in 786, traditionally said to be founded in 1088, the University of Bologna is widely considered to be the first university. The university originated as a centre of study of medieval Roman law under major glossators. It numbered Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarca among its students, the medical school is especially famous. In the 12th century, the families engaged in continual internecine fighting. Troops of Pope Julius II besieged Bologna and sacked the artistic treasures of his palace, in 1530, in front of Saint Petronio Church, Charles V was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII. Then a plague at the end of the 16th century reduced the population from 72,000 to 59,000, the population later recovered to a stable 60, 000–65,000. However, there was also great progress during this era, in 1564, the Piazza del Nettuno and the Palazzo dei Banchi were built, along with the Archiginnasio, the centre of the University
30.
Romagna
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Romagna is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to the east, the regions major cities include Cesena, Faenza, Forlì, Imola, Ravenna, Rimini and City of San Marino. The region has been formally expanded with the transfer of seven comuni from the Marche region. The name Romagna comes from the Latin name Romania, which originally was the name for land inhabited by Romans. It later took on the detailed meaning of territory subjected to Eastern Roman rule. Romania later became Romandìola in Vulgar Latin, meaning little Romania, a number of archaeological sites in the region, such as Monte Poggiolo, show that Romagna has been inhabited since the Paleolithic age. The Umbri, speaking an extinct Italic language called Umbrian, are the first traceable inhabitants of the region, the Etruscans also dwelt in some portions of Romagna. In the 5th Century BC, various Gaulish tribes, most notably the Lingones, Senoni and Boii, moved south into Italy, the Senoni utterly subjugated the Umbri and settled in Romagna. The Senoni extended further south to Ancona, with their capital Sena Gallica, the lands formerly inhabited by the Senoni were known as ager Gallicus to the Romans. According to the Italian linguist Giacomo Devoto, there are still a number of Celtic substrata in the Romagnolo dialect, gallic predominance in the region was consistently challenged by the Romans. In the battle of Telamon, the Romans defeated the joint forces of the Celtic tribes, after the Second Punic War, the pro-Carthaginian Lingones and Senoni were expelled. To consolidate the Roman rule in the region, the Via Aemilia was built from Ariminium to Piacentia, the most significant ones are Forum Livii, Forum Cornelii and Forum Popili. After the Social War, the Lex Julia was introduced in 90 BC, in the first Roman civil war, between Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, most cities in the regions supported Marius. As a result, Forum Livii and Caesena were razed to ground, during the first triumvirate, the Roman Republic was divided along the infamous Rubicon. Most of modern Romagna was ruled by Julius Caesar, the exception of Ariminium. In 49 BC, Caesar, who was residing in Ravenna then, led the Legio XIII across the Rubicon, after the decisive battle of Actium, Augustus started a century-long era of Pax Romana. All of Cisalpine Gaul had been incorporated into the Roman province of Italia, around 7 BC, Augustus divided all of Italy into eleven regiones, and most of Romagna was in the eighth, Aemilia. By the beginning of the 3rd Century, Diocletian re-divided the Empire into four prefectures, each divided into dioceses, under the new system, Italy was demoted to a mere Imperial province
31.
Harpsichord
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A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed, Harpsichord designates the whole family of similar plucked keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginals, muselar, and spinet. The harpsichord was used in Renaissance and Baroque music. During the late 18th century, it disappeared from the musical scene with the rise of the piano. In the 20th century, it made a resurgence, being used in historically informed performances of music, in compositions. Harpsichords vary in size and shape, but all have the basic functional arrangement. The player depresses a key that rocks over a pivot in the middle of its length, the other end of the key lifts a jack that holds a small plectrum, which plucks the string. When the player releases the key, the far end returns to its rest position, the plectrum, mounted on a tongue that can swivel backwards away from the string, passes the string without plucking it again. As the key reaches its rest position, a felt damper atop the jack stops the strings vibrations and these basic principles are explained in detail below. The keylever is a pivot, which rocks on a balance pin that passes through a hole drilled through the keylever. The jack is a thin, rectangular piece of wood that sits upright on the end of the keylever, the jacks are held in place by the registers. These are two strips of wood, which run in the gap between pinblock and bellyrail. The registers have rectangular mortises through which the pass as they can move up. The registers hold the jacks in the location needed to pluck the string. In the jack, a plectrum juts out almost horizontally and passes just under the string, historically, plectra were made of bird quill or leather, many modern harpsichords have plastic plectra. When the front of the key is pressed, the back of the key rises, the jack is lifted, the vertical motion of the jack is then stopped by the jackrail, which is covered with soft felt to muffle the impact. When the key is released, the falls back down under its own weight. This is made possible by having the plectrum held in a tongue attached with a pivot and a spring to the body of the jack
32.
Novara
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Novara listen is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With about 105,000 inhabitants, it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin and it is an important crossroads for commercial traffic along the routes from Milan to Turin and from Genoa to Switzerland. Novara lies between the rivers Agogna and Terdoppio in northeastern Piedmont,50 kilometres from Milan and 95 kilometres from Turin, Novara was founded in ancient times by the Romans. Its name is formed from Nov, meaning new, and Aria, ancient Novaria, which dates to the time of the Ligures and the Celts, was a municipium and was situated on the road from Vercellae to Milan. Its position on perpendicular roads dates to the time of the Romans, after the city was destroyed in 386 by Magnus Maximus for having supported his rival Valentinian II, it was rebuilt by Theodosius I. Subsequently, it was sacked by Radagaisus and Attila, under the Lombards, Novara became a duchy, under Charles the Fat, a countship. Novara came to enjoy the rights of an imperial city. In 1110, it was conquered by Henry V and destroyed, at the end of the 12th century, it accepted the protection of Milan and became practically a dominion of the Visconti and later of the Sforza. In the Battle of Novara in 1513, Swiss mercenaries defending Novara for the Sforzas of Milan routed the French troops besieging the city and this defeat ended the French invasion of Italy in the War of the League of Cambrai. In 1706, Novara, which had long ago been promised by Filippo Maria Visconti to Amadeus VIII of Savoy, was occupied by Savoyard troops, with the Peace of Utrecht, the city, together with Milan, became part of the Habsburg Empire. After its occupation in 1734, Novara passed, in the following year, after Napoleons campaign in Italy, Novara became the capital of the Department of the Agogna, but was then reassigned to the House of Savoy in 1814. In 1821, it was the site of a battle in which regular Sardinian troops defeated the Piedmontese constitutional liberals, in the even larger Battle of Novara in 1849, the Sardinian army was defeated by the Austrian army of Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz. This defeat led to the abdication of Charles Albert of Sardinia, the defeat of the Sardinians can be seen as the beginning of the Italian unification movement. A decree in 1859 created the province of Novara, which included the present-day provinces of Vercelli, Biella. The city of Novara had a population of 25,144 in 1861, industrialisation during the 20th century brought an increase in the citys population to 102,088 in 1981. The citys population has changed little in subsequent years, oscar Luigi Scalfaro, former president of Italy and Italian senator for life, was born in Novara in 1918. Novaras sights can be divided into two groupings, the citys most important sights lie within its historic centre, the area once enclosed by the city walls. However, several important sights also lie outside the line of the city walls
33.
Piano
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The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. The word piano is a form of pianoforte, the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument. The first fortepianos in the 1700s had a sound and smaller dynamic range. An acoustic piano usually has a wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings. Pressing one or more keys on the keyboard causes a padded hammer to strike the strings. The hammer rebounds from the strings, and the continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies by more efficiently coupling the acoustic energy to the air, when the key is released, a damper stops the strings vibration, ending the sound. Notes can be sustained, even when the keys are released by the fingers and thumbs and this means that the piano can play 88 different pitches, going from the deepest bass range to the highest treble. The black keys are for the accidentals, which are needed to play in all twelve keys, more rarely, some pianos have additional keys. Most notes have three strings, except for the bass that graduates from one to two, the strings are sounded when keys are pressed or struck, and silenced by dampers when the hands are lifted from the keyboard. There are two types of piano, the grand piano and the upright piano. The grand piano is used for Classical solos, chamber music and art song and it is used in jazz. The upright piano, which is compact, is the most popular type, as they are a better size for use in private homes for domestic music-making. During the nineteenth century, music publishers produced many works in arrangements for piano, so that music lovers could play. The piano is widely employed in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, with technological advances, amplified electric pianos, electronic pianos, and digital pianos have also been developed. The electric piano became an instrument in the 1960s and 1970s genres of jazz fusion, funk music. The piano was founded on earlier technological innovations in keyboard instruments, pipe organs have been used since Antiquity, and as such, the development of pipe organs enabled instrument builders to learn about creating keyboard mechanisms for sounding pitches
34.
Library of Congress
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The Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, the Library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C. it also maintains the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, which houses the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. The Library of Congress claims to be the largest library in the world and its collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 450 languages. Two-thirds of the books it acquires each year are in other than English. The Library of Congress moved to Washington in 1800, after sitting for years in the temporary national capitals of New York. John J. Beckley, who became the first Librarian of Congress, was two dollars per day and was required to also serve as the Clerk of the House of Representatives. The small Congressional Library was housed in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century until the early 1890s, most of the original collection had been destroyed by the British in 1814, during the War of 1812. To restore its collection in 1815, the bought from former president Thomas Jefferson his entire personal collection of 6,487 books. After a period of growth, another fire struck the Library in its Capitol chambers in 1851, again destroying a large amount of the collection. The Library received the right of transference of all copyrighted works to have two copies deposited of books, maps, illustrations and diagrams printed in the United States. It also began to build its collections of British and other European works and it included several stories built underground of steel and cast iron stacks. Although the Library is open to the public, only high-ranking government officials may check out books, the Library promotes literacy and American literature through projects such as the American Folklife Center, American Memory, Center for the Book, and Poet Laureate. James Madison is credited with the idea for creating a congressional library, part of the legislation appropriated $5,000 for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress. And for fitting up an apartment for containing them. Books were ordered from London and the collection, consisting of 740 books and 3 maps, was housed in the new Capitol, as president, Thomas Jefferson played an important role in establishing the structure of the Library of Congress. The new law also extended to the president and vice president the ability to borrow books and these volumes had been left in the Senate wing of the Capitol. One of the only congressional volumes to have survived was a government account book of receipts and it was taken as a souvenir by a British Commander whose family later returned it to the United States government in 1940. Within a month, former president Jefferson offered to sell his library as a replacement
35.
Joseph Haydn
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Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. Haydn spent much of his career as a musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, yet his music circulated widely and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe. He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, a teacher of Beethoven, Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a village that at that time stood on the border with Hungary. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who served as Marktrichter. Haydns mother Maria, née Koller, had worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach. Neither parent could read music, however, Mathias was a folk musician. According to Haydns later reminiscences, his family was extremely musical. Haydns parents had noticed that their son was musically gifted and knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain serious musical training, Haydn therefore went off with Frankh to Hainburg 12 kilometres away, he never again lived with his parents. Life in the Frankh household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently hungry and he began his musical training there, and could soon play both harpsichord and violin. The people of Hainburg heard him sing treble parts in the church choir, Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and after several months of further training moved to Vienna, where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister. Haydn lived in the Kapellhaus next to the cathedral, along with Reutter, Reutters family, and the other four choirboys, the choirboys were instructed in Latin and other school subjects as well as voice, violin, and keyboard. Reutter was of help to Haydn in the areas of music theory and composition. However, since St. Stephens was one of the musical centres in Europe. Like Frankh before him, Reutter did not always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed, by 1749, Haydn had matured physically to the point that he was no longer able to sing high choral parts. Empress Maria Theresa herself complained to Reutter about his singing, calling it crowing, one day, Haydn carried out a prank, snipping off the pigtail of a fellow chorister. This was enough for Reutter, Haydn was first caned, then summarily dismissed and he had the good fortune to be taken in by a friend, Johann Michael Spangler, who shared his familys crowded garret room with Haydn for a few months. Haydn immediately began his pursuit of a career as a freelance musician and he was also briefly in Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitzs employ, playing the organ in the Bohemian Chancellery chapel at the Judenplatz
36.
Demetrio e Polibio
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Demetrio e Polibio is a two-act operatic dramma serio by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Vincenzina Viganò-Mombelli. The opera was orchestrated for strings only, Demetrio e Polibio was Rossinis first attempt at a full-scale opera, assembled piecemeal during his student days at the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna in 1806. The opera was not professionally staged until 18 May 1812, when it premiered at Romes Teatro Valle, place, Parthia The good Polybius, King of Parthia, is the protector of both his own daughter Lisinga and her lover Siveno. Everyone believes Siveno to be the son of Minteus, a minister of King Demetrius of Syria, but he is actually the long estranged son of Demetrius. Demetrius, holding Minteus responsible for his sons disappearance, arrives at the court of Parthia in the guise of Eumeno, a royal messenger, Siveno and Lisinga celebrate their marriage. Polybius confides to Siveno that he is worried about what has happened, meanwhile, Eumene plots to kidnap Siveno and bring him back to Syria. He bribes the servants and guards and at night manages to enter the Parthian court, however, when he arrives in the bed-chamber of the young couple, he finds Lisinga alone and kidnaps her instead. Polybius and Siveno try in vain to stop him, Polybius and Siveno plead for Lisingas release. In reply, Euemeno threatens to kill her unless Siveno is turned over to him, in turn, Polybius threatens to kill Siveno unless Lisinga is released. The situation starts to resolve when Eumene, looks at an old medallion, meanwhile, Polybius does not want to lose Lisinga, and Eumene only wants Siveno. Desperate at their separation, Lisinga tries to kill Eumene. Peace is restored, and the couple live happily ever after, notes Cited sources Gossett, Philip, Brauner, Patricia, Demetrio e Polibio in Holden, Amanda, The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York, Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4 Kennedy, Michael, Demetrio e Polibio, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, Retrieved 8 December 2013 Osborne, Charles, The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, Portland, Oregon, Amadeus Press. ISBN 0-931340-71-3 Osborne, Richard, Demetrio e Polibio, in Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5 Other sources Osborne, Richard, Rossini, Ithaca, New York, Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-088-5 Osborne, Richard, Demetrio e Polibio, Grove Music Online, Retrieved on 21 March 2008 Libretto, Deutsche Rossini Gesellschaft
37.
Cello
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The cello or violoncello is a bowed or plucked string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. The strings from low to high are generally tuned to C2, G2, D3 and A3 and it is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin and viola and the double bass. The cello is used as a musical instrument, as well as in chamber music ensembles, string orchestras, as a member of the string section of symphony orchestras. It is the second-largest and second lowest bowed string instrument in the symphony orchestra. Cello parts are written in the bass clef, but both tenor clef and treble clefs are used for higher-range parts, both in orchestral/chamber music parts and in solo cello works. A person who plays the cello is called a cellist or violoncellist, in a small Classical ensemble, such as a string quartet, the cello typically plays the bass part, the lowest-pitched musical line of the piece. In orchestra, in Baroque era and Classical music period, the cello plays the bass part. In Baroque era music, the cello is used to play the basso continuo bassline, in a Baroque performance, the cello player might be joined by other bass instruments, playing double bass, viol or other low-register instruments. The name cello is a contraction of the Italian violoncello, which means little violone, in modern symphony orchestras, it is the second largest stringed instrument. Thus, the name contained both the augmentative -one and the diminutive -cello. By the turn of the 20th century, it had become common to shorten the name to cello and it is now customary to use cello without apostrophe as the full designation. Viol is derived from the viola, which was derived from Medieval Latin vitula. Cellos are tuned in fifths, starting with C2, followed by G2, D3 and it is tuned in the same intervals as the viola, but an octave lower. Unlike the violin or viola but similar to the double bass, the cello is most closely associated with European classical music, and has been described as the closest sounding instrument to the human voice. The instrument is a part of the orchestra, as part of the string section. A large number of concertos and sonatas have been written for the cello, among the most well-known Baroque works for the cello are Johann Sebastian Bachs six unaccompanied Suites. The Prelude from the First Suite is particularly famous, romantic era repertoire includes the Robert Schumann Concerto, the Antonín Dvořák Concerto as well as the two sonatas and the Double Concerto by Johannes Brahms. The cello is increasingly common in traditional music, especially Scottish fiddle music
38.
La pietra del paragone
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La pietra del paragone is an opera, or melodramma giocoso, in two acts by Gioachino Rossini, to an original Italian libretto by Luigi Romanelli. La pietra del paragone was first performed at La Scala, Milan and it was the composers first commission from a major opera house and was an instant success, being performed 53 times during its first season. I cannot take it upon myself to expose to the fire such a precious existence. We are perhaps losing a mediocre soldier, but we are surely saving a man of genius for the nation, the first performance of the opera in Rio de Janeiro was in 1826. Despite its early success in Europe the work did not receive its North American premiere until 1955, at various times, the cast included Margherita Guglielmi, Julia Hamari, Alessandro Corbelli, Claudio Desderi and Justino Díaz, conductor Roberto Abbado. The ‘’Touchstone’’ of the title is a plan devised by Count Asdrubale to test the sincerity of Donna Fulvia, Baroness Aspasia and Marchioness Clarice, place, Count Asdrubales villa in the country. Pacuvio is attempting to interest the other guests in his tedious poetic verses. Asdrubale himself is attracted to Clarice, but being pursued by three women at the same time, he is uncertain that he can trust any one of them. Furthermore Clarice is hotly pursued by the Counts friend Giocondo and which of the two men she prefers is far from clear, Asdrubale enlists the help of his majordomo Fabrizio to test the genuineness of the ladies emotions. When most of the guests happen to be together with the Count, on opening it Asdrubale reacts with a convincing show of horror and despair at its contents before hurrying away to his private rooms. News rapidly spreads amongst the guests that the Count has been ruined, Fulvia and Aspasia cannot wait to leave, feeling that they have had a lucky escape. However, the arrival of an exotic oriental potentate is announced and he is Asdrubales creditor, and in consequence now the owner of all of his property and possessions. Immediately most of the house guests transfer their attentions and flattery to the new arrival, failing to recognize that it is Asdrubale in heavy disguise, only Giocondo and Clarice demonstrate any concern for the Count. When he is persuaded to leave his private rooms they promise their continued loyalty. The other guests decline to offer any tangible help, at that moment Fabrizio bursts in and announces that Asdrubales debts have miraculously been cleared and that he is once again a wealthy man. The general rejoicing contrasts with the consternation amongst those guests who realize that they have been tricked into revealing their falseness, recriminations amongst the guests are rife. Fulvia and Aspasia urge Pacuvio and Macrobio to exact revenge on the Count, fortunately inherent cowardice prevails and by bluster and outright lying on the part of Pacuvio, confrontation is avoided. This last part of the conversation is overheard by Macrobio, who takes delight in repeating it to the Count
39.
Il signor Bruschino
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The opera was first performed in Venice at the Teatro San Moisè on 27 January 1813. From 1810 to 1813, the young Rossini composed four Italian farces, beginning with La cambiale di matrimonio, his first opera and these types of short pieces were popular in Venice at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. The style called for much visual comedy improvised by the players, here, Bruschino senior often repeats the phrase Oh, it’s so hot. As compared with many genres of opera, acting and comedic talent is more important relative to the singing ability. Rossini’s farces also have a significant sentimental element, overall, it has been described as a vivacious and fast-moving musical comedy, whose graceful score reveals traces still of Cimarosa and even Mozart. Il signor Bruschino is forward-looking in its use of new musical effects, for example, in the overture, the second violins are instructed to tap their bows on their music stands. This lighthearted, energetic overture is one of several by Rossini to have gained importance in the modern concert repertoire. The opera was not given in North America nor in Britain until the 20th century. Its New York premiere took place on 9 December 1932 at the Metropolitan Opera and it was first seen on 14 July 1960 in England, presented by the Kent Opera Group, an amateur company. It is performed infrequently, but other performances have taken place in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, in particular, stagings in Paris, time, 18th Century Place, Gaudenzios castle in France. Sofia and Florville are in love, but her guardian, Gaudenzio, florvilles father and Gaudenzio are old enemies. Florvilles father dies, removing one barrier, but Gaudenzio has already agreed to wed Sofia to the son of his old friend, Sofia has never met her fiancée, as they were betrothed by correspondence. On his way to meet Sofia, young Bruschino stops at a tavern, seizing the opportunity, Florville pretends to be Bruschino junior so that he can marry Sofia. Complications arise when Bruschino senior arrives at Gaudenzios house, fortunately, however, he is eventually forced to accept Florville as his own son. In a playful trio, Florville begs his father for forgiveness, notes Sources Gossett, Philip, Brauner, Patricia, Il signor Bruschino in Holden, Amanda, The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York, Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4 Osborne, Charles, The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, ISBN0931340713 Osborne, Richard, Il signor Bruschino, in Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. xxxx
40.
Voltaire
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Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 21,000 letters and over two books and pamphlets. He was an advocate of civil liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma. Some speculation surrounds Voltaires date of birth, because he claimed he was born on 20 February 1694 as the son of a nobleman. Two of his older brothers—Armand-François and Robert—died in infancy and his brother, Armand. Nicknamed Zozo by his family, Voltaire was baptized on 22 November 1694, with François de Castagnère, abbé de Châteauneuf, and Marie Daumard, the wife of his mothers cousin, standing as godparents. He was educated by the Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, where he was taught Latin, theology, and rhetoric, later in life he became fluent in Italian, Spanish, and English. By the time he left school, Voltaire had decided he wanted to be a writer, against the wishes of his father, Voltaire, pretending to work in Paris as an assistant to a notary, spent much of his time writing poetry. When his father out, he sent Voltaire to study law. Nevertheless, he continued to write, producing essays and historical studies, Voltaires wit made him popular among some of the aristocratic families with whom he mixed. In 1713, his father obtained a job for him as a secretary to the new French ambassador in the Netherlands, the marquis de Châteauneuf, at The Hague, Voltaire fell in love with a French Protestant refugee named Catherine Olympe Dunoyer. Their scandalous affair was discovered by de Châteauneuf and Voltaire was forced to return to France by the end of the year, Most of Voltaires early life revolved around Paris. From early on, Voltaire had trouble with the authorities for critiques of the government and these activities were to result in two imprisonments and a temporary exile to England. One satirical verse, in which Voltaire accused the Régent of incest with his own daughter, the Comédie-Française had agreed in January 1717 to stage his debut play, Œdipe, and it opened in mid-November 1718, seven months after his release. Its immediate critical and financial success established his reputation, both the Régent and King George I of Great Britain presented Voltaire with medals as a mark of their appreciation. He mainly argued for tolerance and freedom of thought. He campaigned to eradicate priestly and aristo-monarchical authority, and supported a constitutional monarchy that protects peoples rights, the author adopted the name Voltaire in 1718, following his incarceration at the Bastille
41.
Giovanni Paisiello
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Giovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer of the Classical era. Paisiello was born in Taranto and educated by the Jesuits there and he became known for his beautiful singing voice and in 1754 was sent to the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio at Naples, where he studied under Francesco Durante, and eventually became assistant master. In 1772 Paisiello began to write music, and composed a requiem for Gennara di Borbone. In the same year he married Cecilia Pallini, and the marriage was a happy one, when, in 1816, Gioachino Rossini set a revised version of the libretto to music, under the title of Almaviva ossia la inutil precauzione the fans of Paisiello stormed the stage. Paisiello left Russia in 1784, and, after producing Il Re Teodoro at Vienna, entered the service of Ferdinand IV of Naples, the power of the Bonaparte family was tottering to its fall, and Paisiellos fortunes fell with it. The death of his wife in 1815 tried him severely and his health failed rapidly, and constitutional jealousy of the popularity of others was a source of worry and vexation. Paisiello is known to have composed 94 operas, which are known for their beautiful melodies. Perhaps the best-known tune he wrote is Nel cor più non mi sento from La Molinara. Paisiello also wrote a great deal of music, including eight masses, as well as fifty-one instrumental compositions. He also composed the Inno al Re, the anthem of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Manuscript scores of many of his operas were presented to the library of the British Museum by Domenico Dragonetti, the Concise Grove Dictionary of Music notes that Paisiello was one of the most successful and influential opera composers of his time. Most of his over 80 operas are comic and use a simple, direct and spirited style, latterly with sharper characterization, more colorful scoring and his serious operas have less than the conventional amount of virtuoso vocal writing, those for Russia are the closest to Glucks reform approach. Paisiello was primarily an opera composer and his instrumental works are therefore imbued with a similar vocally conceived melodic line, granted they may be lacking in the sophisticated counterpoint and motivic work of Haydn and Mozarts music. This characterization, however, does not do justice to the extreme drama, essentially he had mastered all the techniques which made for good opera, and this made his works widely popular and admired throughout Europe. Parma, Loca del Cairo Edizioni Musicali,2006 and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Paisiello, Giovanni. A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, free scores by Giovanni Paisiello at the International Music Score Library Project Robinson, Michael F. Paisiello, Giovanni. Free scores by Giovanni Paisiello in the Choral Public Domain Library
42.
Vincenzo Camuccini
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Vincenzo Camuccini was an Italian painter of Neoclassic histories and religious paintings. He was considered the academic painter of his time in Rome. Camuccini was born in Rome, and first educated by his brother Pietro, a picture-restorer, and Pietro Leone Bombelli and his brother Pietro gave up his place in the studio of Domenico Corvi to Vincenzo. Until nearly the age of 30 he mainly dedicated himself to copying old masters, as an original painter, Camuccini belongs to the Neoclassicist school fostered in Rome by Anton Raphael Mengs. Camuccinis first major independent work, completed around 1798, was a canvas of the Death of Caesar. In 1800, he was commissioned an Incredulity of St. Thomas by the Vatican, in 1806, Gaspare Landi received a commission for two large canvases for the chapel of the Madonna of the Rosary in the church of San Giovanni in Piacenza. Ultimately, the commission was split with Camuccini who painted a Presentation in the Temple, the canvases by the two artists were completed in the early spring of 1806, and were exhibited side by side at the Pantheon at Easter of that year. A few years later, he was invited to Munich and Paris, the government had requested a painting on the Battle of Ratisbon. In Paris, he met Napoleon, David, Perodet, Gros, Regnault, of pictures on classic Greco-Roman history were, Horatius Cocles. He also painted, Incredulity of St. Thomas reproduced in mosaic in St. Peters at Rome, Presentation in the Temple for San Giovanni at Piacenza. The Entombment painted for Charles IV of Spain, apparition of Christ in Limbo Conversion of St. Paul for the basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome. Romolo and Remos discovery He also painted a Betrothal of Psyche, and, jointly with Landi, he painted, in fresco, Camuccini was appointed inspector-general of the Museums of the Pope, and of the Factory of Mosaics, and director of the Neapolitan Academy of Rome. He was a member of the Institute of France, during some years president of the Academy of St. Luke, Pope Pius VII conferred upon him the title of Baron, with hereditary succession, and the Emperor Francis I the order of the Iron Crown. In 1829, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary member and he expended no small portion of his wealth in the purchase of a fine collection of objects of art. In 1856, the portion of the pictures, upwards of seventy in number, were purchased being bought by the duke of Northumberland. He purchased a Raphael, known as Madonna of the Pinks, among his many pupils and followers were Nicola de Laurentiis of Chieti. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical, york St. #4, Covent Garden, London, Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18,2007, George Bell and Sons. Longmans, Green & co.39 Paternoster Row, London, ulrich W. Hiesinger, The Paintings of Vincenzo Camuccini, 1771–1844, The Art Bulletin, vol
listen); 29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as some sacred music, songs, chamber music, and piano pieces. He was a precocious composer of operas, and he made his debut at age 18 with La cambiale di matrimonio. His best-known operas include the Italian comedies The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia), The Italian Girl in Algiers (L'italiana in Algeri), and Cinderella (La Cenerentola). He also wrote a string of serious operas in Italian, including works such as Tancredi, Otello, and Semiramide. The Thieving Magpie (La gazza ladra) features one of his most celebrated overtures.
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