1.
Tenor
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Tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is one of the highest of the male voice types. The tenors vocal range lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, and A4, the A above middle C, in solo work, this range extends up to C5, or tenor high C. The low extreme for tenors is roughly A♭2, at the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to two Fs above middle C. The tenor voice type is divided into the leggero tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor. The name tenor derives from the Latin word tenere, which means to hold, in medieval and Renaissance polyphony between about 1250 and 1500, the tenor was the structurally fundamental voice, vocal or instrumental. All other voices were normally calculated in relation to the tenor, until the late 16th century introduction of the contratenor singers, the tenor was usually the highest voice, assuming the role of providing a foundation. It was also in the 18th century that tenor came to signify the male voice that sang such parts, thus, for earlier repertoire, a line marked tenor indicated the parts role, and not the required voice type. Indeed, even as late as the century, partbooks labelled tenor might contain parts for a range of voice types. The vocal range of the tenor is one of the highest of the voice types. Within opera, the lowest note in the tenor repertoire is probably A♭2 in Rossinis rarely performed La donna del lago in the role of Rodrigo di Dhu. Within more frequently performed repertoire, Mime and Herod both call for an A2, a few tenor roles in the standard repertoire call for a tenor C. Some of the few top Cs in the operatic repertoire are either optional or interpolated by tradition. However, the highest demanded note in the standard operatic repertoire is D5. Some operatic roles for tenors require a darker timbre and fewer high notes, in the leggero repertoire, the highest note is F5, therefore, very few tenors can, given the raising of concert pitch since its composition, have this role in their repertoire without transposition. Within the tenor voice type category are seven generally recognized subcategories, leggero tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, Mozart tenor, Also known as the tenore di grazia, the leggero tenor is essentially the male equivalent of a lyric coloratura. This voice is light, agile, and capable of executing difficult passages of fioritura, the typical leggero tenor possesses a range spanning from approximately C3 to E♭5, with a few being able to sing up to F5 or higher in full voice. In some cases, the chest register of the leggero tenor may extend below C3, voices of this type are utilized frequently in the operas of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and in music dating from the Baroque period. Leggero tenor roles in operas, The lyric tenor is a warm voice with a bright, full timbre that is strong but not heavy
2.
French opera
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French opera is one of Europes most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Poulenc and Messiaen. Many foreign-born composers have played a part in the French tradition as well, including Lully, Gluck, Salieri, Cherubini, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Offenbach, Lully and his librettist Quinault created tragédie en musique, a form in which dance music and choral writing were particularly prominent. Lullys most important successor was Rameau, after Rameaus death, the German Gluck was persuaded to produce six operas for the Parisian stage in the 1770s. They show the influence of Rameau, but simplified and with focus on the drama. At the same time, by the middle of the 18th century another genre was gaining popularity in France, opéra comique, by the 1820s, Gluckian influence in France had given way to a taste for the operas of Rossini. Rossinis Guillaume Tell helped found the new genre of Grand opera, lighter opéra comique also enjoyed tremendous success in the hands of Boïeldieu, Auber and others. In this climate, the operas of the French-born composer Hector Berlioz struggled to gain a hearing, berliozs epic masterpiece Les Troyens, the culmination of the Gluckian tradition, was not given a full performance for almost a hundred years after it was written. At the same time, the influence of Richard Wagner was felt as a challenge to the French tradition, perhaps the most interesting response to Wagnerian influence was Claude Debussys unique operatic masterpiece Pelléas et Mélisande. Other notable 20th-century names include Ravel, Poulenc and Messiaen, the first operas to be staged in France were imported from Italy, beginning with Francesco Sacratis La finta pazza in 1645. French audiences gave them a lukewarm reception, when two Italian operas, Francesco Cavallis Xerse and Ercole amante, proved failures in Paris in 1660 and 1662, the prospects of opera flourishing in France looked remote. In 1669, Pierre Perrin founded the Académie dOpéra and, in collaboration with the composer Robert Cambert and their first effort, Pomone, appeared on stage on 3 March 1671 and was followed a year later by Les peines et plaisirs de lamour. At this point King Louis XIV transferred the privilege of producing operas from Perrin to Jean-Baptiste Lully, Lully, a Florentine, was already the favourite musician of the king, who had assumed full royal powers in 1661 and was intent on refashioning French culture in his image. Lully had an instinct for knowing exactly what would satisfy the taste of his master. He had already composed music for extravagant court entertainments as well as for the theatre, yet Molière and Lully had quarrelled bitterly and the composer found a new and more pliable collaborator in Philippe Quinault, who would write the libretti for all but two of Lullys operas. On 27 April 1673, Lullys Cadmus et Hermione – often regarded as the first French opera in the sense of the term – appeared in Paris. It was a work in a new genre, which its creators Lully and Quinault baptised tragédie en musique, a form of opera specially adapted for French taste. Lully went on to produce tragédies en musique at the rate of at least one a year until his death in 1687, as the name suggests, tragédie en musique was modelled on the French Classical tragedy of Corneille and Racine. Lully and Quinault replaced the confusingly elaborate Baroque plots favoured by the Italians with a much clearer five-act structure, each of the five acts generally followed a regular pattern
3.
Travesti (theatre)
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Not to be confused with the South American gender identity term, Travesti. Travesti is a term referring to the portrayal of a character in an opera, play. Some sources regard travesti as an Italian term, some as French, depending on sources, the term may be given as travesty, travesti, or en travesti. Similarly, in the popular genre of Victorian burlesque, there were usually one or more breeches roles. As a boy player, Alexander Cooke is thought to have created many of Shakespeares principal female roles, as well as Agrippina in Ben Jonsons Sejanus His Fall. With the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, women began to appear on the English stage, although some female roles continued to be played by boys and young men, including romantic leads. Edward Kynaston, whose roles included the role in Ben Jonsons Epicoene and Evadne in Beaumont. Londons Shakespeares Globe theatre, a reconstruction of the original Globe Theatre. Toby Cockerell played Katherine of France in the opening production of Henry V in 1997, while Mark Rylance played Cleopatra in the 1999 production of Antony. Travesti roles for men are still to be found in British pantomime, where there is at least one female character traditionally played by a male actor. Castrati, adult males with a singing voice, appeared in the earliest operas – initially in female roles. In the first performance of Monteverdis Orfeo in 1607 the roles of Eurydice, however, by 1680 the castrati had become the predominant singers for leading male roles as well. The use of castrati for both male and female roles was particularly strong in the Papal states, where women were forbidden from public performances until the 19th century. An exception to this practice was in 17th and 18th century French opera where it was traditional to use uncastrated male voices both for the hero and for malevolent female divinities and spirits. In Lullys 1686 opera Armide the hero was sung by a haute-contre while the spirit of hatred was sung by a tenor. In Rameaus 1733 Hippolyte et Aricie, the hero was sung by an haute-contre, the remaining female roles in both operas were sung by women. The title role of the vain but ugly marsh nymph in Rameaus Platée is also for an haute-contre, Female roles in opera sung by men can still be found, although they are not common. Azio Corghis 2005 opera Il dissoluto assolto, which incorporates elements from Mozarts Don Giovanni
4.
Jean-Philippe Rameau
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Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time. He was almost 50 before he embarked on the career on which his reputation chiefly rests today. His debut, Hippolyte et Aricie, caused a stir and was fiercely attacked by the supporters of Lullys style of music for its revolutionary use of harmony. Rameaus music had gone out of fashion by the end of the 18th century, today, he enjoys renewed appreciation with performances and recordings of his music ever more frequent. The details of Rameaus life are obscure, especially concerning his first forty years. He was a man, and even his wife knew nothing of his early life. Rameaus early years are particularly obscure and he was born on 25 September 1683 in Dijon, and baptised the same day. His father, Jean, worked as an organist in churches around Dijon. The couple had children, of whom Jean-Philippe was the seventh. Rameau was taught music before he could read or write and he was educated at the Jesuit college at Godrans, but he was not a good pupil and disrupted classes with his singing, later claiming that his passion for opera had begun at the age of twelve. Initially intended for the law, Rameau decided he wanted to be a musician, and his father sent him to Italy, on his return, he worked as a violinist in travelling companies and then as an organist in provincial cathedrals before moving to Paris for the first time. Here, in 1706, he published his earliest known compositions, the works that make up his first book of Pièces de clavecin. In 1709, he moved back to Dijon to take over his fathers job as organist in the main church, the contract was for six years, but Rameau left before then and took up similar posts in Lyon and Clermont. During this period, he composed motets for church performance as well as secular cantatas, in 1722, he returned to Paris for good, and here he published his most important work of music theory, Traité de lharmonie. This soon won him a reputation, and it was followed in 1726 by his Nouveau système de musique théorique. In 1724 and 1729, he published two more collections of harpsichord pieces. Rameau took his first tentative steps into composing music when the writer Alexis Piron asked him to provide songs for his popular comic plays written for the Paris Fairs
5.
Jean-Baptiste Lully
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Jean-Baptiste Lully was an Italian-born French composer, instrumentalist, and dancer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered a master of the French baroque style, Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in 1661, Lully was born on November 28,1632 in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, to a family of millers. His general education and his training during his youth in Florence remain uncertain. He used to say that a Franciscan friar gave him his first music lessons and he also learned to play the violin. Guise took the boy to Paris, where the fourteen-year-old entered Mademoiselles service and he probably honed his musical skills by working with Mademoiselles household musicians and with composers Nicolas Métru, François Roberday and Nicolas Gigault. The teenagers talents as a guitarist, violinist, and dancer quickly won him the nicknames Baptiste, when Mademoiselle was exiled to the provinces in 1652 after the rebellion known as the Fronde, Lully begged his leave. Because he did not want to live in the country, by February 1653 Lully had attracted the attention of young Louis XIV, dancing with him in the Ballet royal de la nuit. By March 16,1653, Lully had been made royal composer for instrumental music and his vocal and instrumental music for court ballets gradually made him indispensable. In 1660 and 1662 he collaborated on performances of Francesco Cavallis Xerse. When Louis XIV took over the reins of government in 1661, in December 1661 the Florentine was granted letters of naturalization. The latter assertion was an untruth, from 1661 on, the trios and dances he wrote for the court were promptly published. When he became surintendant de la de la chambre du roi in 1661. He relied mainly on the Little Violins for court ballets and their collaboration began in earnest in 1664 with Le Mariage forcé. In 1672 Lully broke with Molière, who turned to Marc-Antoine Charpentier, having acquired Pierre Perrins opera privilege, Lully became the director of the Académie Royale de Musique, that is, the royal opera, which performed in the Palais-Royal. Between 1673 and 1687 he produced a new opera almost yearly and fiercely protected his monopoly over that new genre, after Queen Marie-Thérèses death in 1683 and the kings secret marriage to Mme de Maintenon, devotion came to the fore at court. The kings enthusiasm for opera dissipated, he was revolted by Lullys dissolute life, in 1686, to show his displeasure, Louis XIV made a point of not inviting Lully to perform Armide at Versailles. Lully died from gangrene, having struck his foot with his conducting staff during a performance of his Te Deum to celebrate Louis XIVs recovery from surgery
6.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
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Marc-Antoine Charpentier was a French composer of the Baroque era. Exceptionally prolific and versatile, Charpentier produced compositions of the highest quality in several genres and his mastery in writing sacred vocal music, above all, was recognized and hailed by his contemporaries. Any family relationship between him and Gustave Charpentier, the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century French opera composer, is highly unlikely, Charpentier was born in or near Paris, the son of a master scribe who had very good connections to influential families in the Parlement of Paris. Marc-Antoine received a good education, perhaps with the help of the Jesuits. He spent two or three years in Rome, probably between 1667 and 1669, and studied with Giacomo Carissimi and he is also known to have been in contact with poet-musician Charles Coypeau dAssoucy, who was composing for the French Embassy in Rome. A legend claims that Charpentier initially traveled to Rome to study painting before he was discovered by Carissimi, regardless, he acquired a solid knowledge of contemporary Italian musical practice and brought it back to France. Immediately on his return to France, Charpentier probably began working as composer to Marie de Lorraine, duchesse de Guise. Throughout the 1670s, the bulk of works were for trios. Then, about 1680, Mlle de Guise increased the size of the ensemble, until it included 13 performers, in the pieces written from 1684 until late 1687, the names of the Guise musicians appear as marginalia in Charpentiers manuscripts – including Charp beside the haute-contre line. Étienne Loulié, the senior instrumentalist who played keyboard, recorder and viole, despite what is often asserted, during his seventeen years in the service of Mlle de Guise, Charpentier was not the director of the Guise ensemble. The director was a gentleman of Mlle de Guises court, a musician, Italophile. During his years of service to Mlle de Guise, Charpentier also composed for Mme de Guise and it was in large part owing to Mme de Guises protection that the Guise musicians were permitted to perform Charpentiers chamber operas in defiance of the monopoly held by Jean Baptiste Lully. By late 1687, Mlle de Guise was dying, around that time, Charpentier entered the employ of the Jesuits. Indeed, he is not named in the princesss will of March 1688, nor in the papers of her estate, during his seventeen-odd years at the Hôtel de Guise, Charpentier had written almost as many pages of music for outside commissions as he had for Mlle de Guise. For example, after Molières falling out with Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1672, after Molières death in 1673, Charpentier continued to write for the playwrights successors, Thomas Corneille and Jean Donneau de Visé. Play after play, he would compose pieces that demanded more musicians than the number authorized by Lullys monopoly over theatrical music, by 1685, the troop ceased flouting these restrictions. Their capitulation ended Charpentiers career as a composer for the spoken theater, in 1679, Charpentier had been singled out to compose for Louis XIVs son, the Dauphin. In short, an ensemble that, with Mlle de Guises permission, by early 1683, when he was awarded a royal pension, Charpentier was being commissioned to write for court events such as the annual Corpus Christi procession
7.
Christoph Willibald Gluck
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Christoph Willibald Gluck was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. With a series of new works in the 1760s, among them Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste. The strong influence of French opera in these works encouraged Gluck to move to Paris, fusing the traditions of Italian opera and the French national genre into a new synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the Parisian stages. One of the last of these, Iphigénie en Tauride, was a success and is generally acknowledged to be his finest work. Gluck was born on 2 July 1714 in Erasbach near Neumarkt and his father Alexander was a forester in Erasbach, and after 1717 head forester in Reichstadt, Kreibitz and Eisenberg, all in northern Bohemia. According to some biographers, it was here, in the middle of Lusatian Mountains, in 1727 the family moved to Eisenberg, where his father was admitted to the service of Prince Philip Hyazinth von Lobkowitz. The Alsatian painter Johann Christian von Mannlich says it was as a Bohemian schoolboy that Gluck received his first musical training. Mannlich relates in his memoirs, written in French and published in 1810 and he quotes Gluck as saying, My father was forestmaster at M. in Bohemia and he planned that eventually I should succeed him. In my homeland everyone is musical, music is taught in the schools, as I was passionate about the art, I made rapid progress. I played several instruments and the schoolmaster, singling me out from the other pupils, I no longer thought and dreamt of anything but music, the art of forestry was neglected. Most now claim that the object of Glucks travels was not Vienna but Prague, at the time the University of Prague boasted a flourishing musical scene that included performances of both Italian opera and oratorio. Gluck eventually left Prague without taking a degree, and vanishes from the record until 1737. According to the music historian Daniel Heartz, there has been considerable controversy concerning Glucks native language, Glucks first biographer, Anton Schmid, accepted that Gluck spoke Czech, but thought Salieri incorrect, proposing instead that Gluck learned Czech in Prague. Heartz writes, More devious manoeuvres have been attempted by Glucks German biographers of this century, while the French ones have, without exception, hans Joachim Moser wanted a lyric work in Czech as proof. In fact, the music theorist Larent Garcin, writing in 1770 before Gluck arrived in Paris, in 1737 Gluck arrived in Milan, where he studied under G. B. Sammartini, who, according to Carpani, taught Gluck practical knowledge of all the instruments, apparently this relationship lasted for several years. Set to a libretto by Metastasio, the opera opened the Milanese Carnival of 1742, according to one anecdote, the public would not accept Glucks style until he inserted an aria in the lighter Milanese manner for contrast. Nearly all of his operas in this period were, like Artaserse, set to Metastasios texts, in 1745 Gluck accepted an invitation to become house composer at Londons Kings Theatre, probably travelling to England via Frankfurt and in the company of Georg Christian, Fürst von Lobkowitz
8.
Paris Opera
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The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of France. Classical ballet as we know it today arose within the Paris Opera as the Paris Opera Ballet and has remained an integral, small scale and contemporary works are also staged in the 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille. The companys annual budget is in the order of 200 million euros, with this money, the company runs the two houses and supports a large permanent staff, which includes the orchestra of 170, a chorus of 110 and the corps de ballet of 150. Each year, the Opéra presents about 380 performances of opera, ballet and other concerts, to an audience of about 800,000 people. In the 2012/13 season, the Opéra presented 18 opera titles,13 ballets,5 symphonic concerts, the companys training bodies are also active, with 7 concerts from the Atelier Lyrique and 4 programmes from the École de Danse. The poet Pierre Perrin began thinking and writing about the possibility of French opera in 1655 and he believed that the prevailing opinion of the time that the French language was fundamentally unmusical was completely incorrect. Seventeenth-century France offered Perrin essentially two types of organization for realizing his vision, an academy or a public theater. On 28 June 1669, Louis XIV signed the Privilège accordé au Sieur Perrin pour létablissement dune Académie dOpéra en musique and he was free to select business partners of his choice and to set the price of tickets. No one was to have the right of free entry including members of the royal court, although it was to be a public theatre, it retained its status as royal academy in which the authority of the king as the primary stakeholder was decisive. The monopoly, originally intended to protect the enterprise from competition during its phase, was renewed for subsequent recipients of the privilege up to the early French Revolution. As Victoria Johnson points out, the Opera was an organization by nature so luxurious and expensive in its productions that its survival depended on financial protection. His first opera Pomone with music by Robert Cambert opened on 3 March 1671, a second work, Les peines et les plaisirs de lamour, with a libretto by Gabriel Gilbert and music by Cambert, was performed in 1672. The institution was renamed the Académie Royale de Musique and came to be known in France simply as the Opéra. Because of legal difficulties Lully could not use the Salle de la Bouteille, during Lullys tenure, the only works performed were his own. The first productions were the pastorale Les fêtes de lAmour et de Bacchus, Lully greatly desired a better theatre and persuaded the king to let him use the one at the Palais-Royal free of charge. The Théâtre du Palais-Royal had been altered in 1660 and 1671, the first production in the new theatre was Alceste on 19 January 1674. The opera was bitterly attacked by those enraged at the restrictions that Lully had caused to be placed on the French, to mitigate the damage, Louis XIV arranged for new works to be premiered at the court, usually at the Chateau Vieux of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This had the advantage of subsidizing the cost of rehearsals, as well as most of the machinery, sets, and costumes
9.
Joseph Legros
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Joseph Legros, often also spelt Le Gros, was a French singer and composer of the 18th century. Legros was born at Monampteuil, Laon, Legros began his operatic career singing the principal roles in revivals of the operas by Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau, and in the new works by their late followers. Accordingly, in 1774 Legros was charged with the roles of Achilles in Iphigénie en Aulide and, more important, in revising the latter opera, Gluck adapted for high tenor the male title role, originally intended for the alto castrato Gaetano Guadagni. Gluck exploited the upper range throughout the opera, so that the role lies consistently about a higher than the conventional tenor register. While coaching him in the chorus, Gluck addressed him like this, My good sir, it is intolerable, you always scream when you should sing. Think at this moment neither of the music nor of the chorus, and, if you can, realise this pain inwardly, spiritually, and as if it came from the heart. Legros acquitted himself with even in the Italianate virtuoso style of the arietta Lespoir renaît dans mon âme. His final creation was the role in Antonio Sacchinis Renaud. He even suggested Legros alone was qualified to fill the vacant directorship of the theatre, papillon de la Fertés suggestion, however, met with opposition from the rest of the committee and remained a dead letter. From 1777 Legros directed the Concert Spirituel, where he promoted performances of the music of Haydn and he collaborated with Léopold-Bastien Desormery to rewrite the second act of François Lupien Grenets opéra-ballet Le triomphe de lharmonie. Their work was performed at the Opéra in 1775 under the title Hylas et Eglé, during this time he also composed an unperformed opera, Anacréon, and some songs. Julian Rushton, Legros, Joseph, Grove Music Online ed L. Macy, grovemusic. com, jeremy Hayes, Orfeo ed Euridice, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy, grovemusic. com, subscription access. Howard, Patricia, C. W. von Gluck, Orfeo, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,1981, ISBN 0-521-29664-1 Pitou, Spire, The Paris Opéra
10.
Orfeo ed Euridice
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Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a subject with choruses. The piece was first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 5 October 1762 in the presence of Empress Maria Theresa, the opera is the most popular of Glucks works, and one of the most influential on subsequent German opera. Variations on its plot – the underground rescue-mission in which the hero must control, or conceal, his emotions – include Mozarts The Magic Flute, Beethovens Fidelio and Wagners Das Rheingold. Though originally set to an Italian libretto, Orfeo ed Euridice owes much to the genre of French opera, particularly in its use of accompanied recitative and a general absence of vocal virtuosity. Indeed, twelve years after the 1762 premiere, Gluck re-adapted the opera to suit the tastes of a Parisian audience at the Académie Royale de Musique with a libretto by Pierre-Louis Moline. This reworking was given the title Orphée et Eurydice, and several alterations were made in vocal casting, francesco Algarottis Essay on the Opera was a major influence in the development of Glucks reformist ideology. Algarotti proposed a simplified model of opera seria, with the drama pre-eminent. The drama itself should delight the eyes and ears, to rouse up and to affect the hearts of an audience, Algarottis ideas influenced both Gluck and his librettist, Calzabigi. Calzabigi was himself a prominent advocate of reform, and he stated, If Mr Gluck was the creator of dramatic music, I provided him with the material or the chaos, if you like. We therefore share the honour of that creation, other influences included the composer Niccolò Jommelli and his maître de ballet at Stuttgart, Jean-Georges Noverre. Noverres Lettres sur la danse called for dramatic effect over acrobatic ostentation, Noverre was himself influenced by the operas of Rameau, the considerable quantity of ballet in Orfeo ed Euridice is thought to be due to his influence. Jommelli himself was noted for his blending of all aspects of the production, ballet, staging, the first lines of arias, choruses, etc. are given in Italian and French. A chorus of nymphs and shepherds join Orfeo around the tomb of his wife Euridice in a chorus of mourning. Orfeo sends the others away and sings of his grief in the aria Chiamo il mio ben/Objet de mon amour and this technique was extremely radical at the time and indeed proved overly so for those who came after Gluck, Mozart chose to retain the unity of the aria. Amore appears, telling Orfeo that he may go to the Underworld, as encouragement, Amore informs Orfeo that his present suffering shall be short-lived with the aria Gli sguardi trattieni/Soumis au silence. Orfeo resolves to take on the quest, in a rocky landscape, the Furies refuse to admit Orfeo to the Underworld, and sing of Cerberus, its canine guardian. When Orfeo, accompanied by his lyre, begs for pity in the aria Deh placatevi con me/Laissez-vous toucher, from the Furies, but they are eventually softened by the sweetness of his singing in the arias Mille pene/Ah
11.
Charles-Antoine Coypel
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Charles-Antoine Coypel was a French painter, art commentator, and playwright. He was the son of the artist Antoine Coypel and grandson of Noël Coypel, charles-Antoine inherited his father’s design and painting duties as premier peintre du roi at the French court when his father died in 1722. He became premier peintre du roi and director of the Académie Royale in 1747 and he received a number of commissions for paintings for the Palais de Versailles, and worked for Madame de Pompadour, the king’s mistress. Coypel was an excellent tapestry designer and he designed tapestries for the Gobelins manufactory. His most successful tapestries were created from a series illustrating Don Quixote, Coypel was the first to illustrate Don Quixote in a sophisticated manner. These illustrations were painted as cartoons for tapestries, and were engraved and published in a folio in Paris in 1724. Coypel created twenty-eight small paintings for these tapestries over a number of years, each of the paintings was used as the centrepiece of a larger area that was richly decorated with birds, small animals, and garlands of flowers on a pattered background. Over two hundred pieces of the Don Quixote series were woven between 1714 and 1794 and he received a commission to design a series of theatrical scenes for tapestries for the queen of Poland in 1747. Coypel also wrote prose, several comedies, two tragedies, and some poetry, alongside his painting career, Coypel wrote some forty plays between 1717 and 1747. Only Les Folies de Cardenio was published and it was played at Palais des Tuileries in 1721. In La Poésie et la Peinture, allegorical comedy in three acts, the artist compared the qualities of both arts, the painter also realized works on the theme of the theater, including the portrait of Adrienne Lecouvreur in Cornelia. Charles-Antoine Coypel on Data. bnf. fr Charles Antoine Coypel in Artcyclopedia
12.
Countertenor
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Countertenors often are baritones or tenors at core, but rarely use this vocal range in performance. The term first came into use in England during the mid-17th century, however, the use of adult male falsettos in polyphony, commonly in the alto range, was common in all-male sacred choirs for some decades previous, as early as the mid-16th century. Modern-day ensembles such as The Tallis Scholars and The Sixteen maintain the use of male altos in period works, during the Romantic period, the popularity of the countertenor voice waned and few compositions were written with that voice type in mind. Although the voice has been considered largely an early music phenomenon, in polyphonic compositions of the 14th and early 15th centuries, the contratenor was a voice part added to the basic two-part contrapuntal texture of discant and tenor. Though having approximately the range as the tenor, it was generally of a much less melodic nature than either of these other two parts. Later the term became obsolete, in Italy, contratenor altus became simply altus, in France, haute-contre, though originally these words were used to designate a vocal part, they are now used to describe singers of that part, whose vocal techniques may differ. In the Catholic Church during the Renaissance, St Pauls admonition mulieres in ecclesiis taceant still prevailed, countertenors, though rarely described as such, therefore found a prominent part in liturgical music, whether singing a line alone or with boy trebles or altos. However, countertenors were never used for roles in early opera, for example, they took several roles in the first performance of Monteverdis LOrfeo. Castrati were already prominent by this date in Italian church choirs, in Italian opera, by the late seventeenth century castrati predominated, while in France, the modal high tenor, called the haute-contre, was established as the voice of choice for leading male roles. In England Purcell wrote significant music for a male voice that he called a counter-tenor, for example. These lines have often challenged modern singers, who have been unsure whether they are high tenor parts or are meant for falsettists. Such is the case in Hail, bright Cecilia in which the solo, Tis Natures Voice, has the range F3 to B♭4, whereas, in the duet, Hark each tree, the countertenor soloist sings from E4 to D5. In parallel, by Handels time, castrati had come to dominate the English operatic stage as much as that of Italy and they also sang the alto parts in Handels choruses. It was as choral singers within the Anglican church tradition that survived as performers throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Otherwise they largely faded from public notice, the most visible person of the countertenor revival in the twentieth century was Alfred Deller, an English singer and champion of authentic early music performance. Deller initially identified as an alto, but his collaborator Michael Tippett recommended the term countertenor to describe his voice. In the 1950s and 60s, his group, the Deller Consort, was important in increasing awareness of Renaissance. Deller was the first modern countertenor to achieve fame, and has had many prominent successors, benjamin Britten wrote the leading role of Oberon in his setting of A Midsummer Nights Dream especially for Deller
13.
Pitch (music)
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Pitch can be determined only in sounds that have a frequency that is clear and stable enough to distinguish from noise. Pitch is a major attribute of musical tones, along with duration, loudness. Pitch may be quantified as a frequency, but pitch is not a purely objective physical property, Pitch is an auditory sensation in which a listener assigns musical tones to relative positions on a musical scale based primarily on their perception of the frequency of vibration. Pitch is closely related to frequency, but the two are not equivalent, frequency is an objective, scientific attribute that can be measured. Pitch is each persons subjective perception of a wave, which cannot be directly measured. However, this not necessarily mean that most people wont agree on which notes are higher and lower. Sound waves themselves do not have pitch, but their oscillations can be measured to obtain a frequency and it takes a sentient mind to map the internal quality of pitch. However, pitches are usually associated with, and thus quantified as frequencies in cycles per second, or hertz, by comparing sounds with pure tones, Complex and aperiodic sound waves can often be assigned a pitch by this method. According to the American National Standards Institute, pitch is the attribute of sound according to which sounds can be ordered on a scale from low to high. That is, high pitch means very rapid oscillation, and low pitch corresponds to slower oscillation, despite that, the idiom relating vertical height to sound pitch is shared by most languages. At least in English, it is just one of many deep conceptual metaphors that involve up/down, the exact etymological history of the musical sense of high and low pitch is still unclear. There is evidence that humans do actually perceive that the source of a sound is slightly higher or lower in vertical space when the frequency is increased or reduced. The pitch of tones can be ambiguous, meaning that two or more different pitches can be perceived, depending upon the observer. In a situation like this, the percept at 200 Hz is commonly referred to as the missing fundamental, Pitch depends to a lesser degree on the sound pressure level of the tone, especially at frequencies below 1,000 Hz and above 2,000 Hz. The pitch of lower tones gets lower as sound pressure increases, for instance, a tone of 200 Hz that is very loud seems one semitone lower in pitch than if it is just barely audible. Above 2,000 Hz, the pitch gets higher as the sound gets louder, theories of pitch perception try to explain how the physical sound and specific physiology of the auditory system work together to yield the experience of pitch. In general, pitch perception theories can be divided into place coding, place theory holds that the perception of pitch is determined by the place of maximum excitation on the basilar membrane. However, a purely place-based theory cannot account for the accuracy of pitch perception in the low, temporal theories offer an alternative that appeals to the temporal structure of action potentials, mostly the phase-locking and mode-locking of action potentials to frequencies in a stimulus
14.
Angelo Maria Amorevoli
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Angelo Maria Amorevoli was a leading Italian tenor in Baroque opera. The following year he was on the stage in Rome for Porpora’s operas Mitridate and Siface, from 1731 to 1735 he took part in major operatic productions in Turin, Milan, and other towns of northern Italy. From 1736 to 1740 he moved to Naples, where he took part in eleven premières, one of which was Sarro’s Achille in Sciro, in 1739 he traveled to Vienna, where he attracted a lot of attention, primarily with his interpretation of Vivaldi’s Feraspe. On December 26,1740 he took part in the inauguration of the new Teatro Regio in Turin, in 1741 he made his debut both in Florence, and in London, where he sang several productions at the Kings Theatre from October 1741 to May 1743. He returned to Italy from 1744 to 1745 where he was on the stage in Milan and he resolved to move to Dresden in order to be given the chance of singing in Hasses operas. There, the Hamburg composer would give him the satisfaction of performing the role in his opera Solimano which was premièred in 1753. He then lived in Milan again from 1748 to 1749 and from 1759 to 1764, returned definitively to Dresden, he was engaged by the Saxon Court, but only as a chamber and Church singer, which posts he held until about 1771. He died in Dresden in 1798, before them, the tenor, which used to show marked baritonal characteristics, was employed in third leading parts, in buffo roles, often interpreting en travesti figures of old women. With the coming of the new tenor class led by Amorevoli, things changed and these included great roles of fathers, commanders, antagonists villains. In this new field, Amorevoli took the lead wherever in Europe he sang, Amorevoli worked with Hasse in Dresden for many years. The following list is not complete
15.
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
16.
Gioachino Rossini
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Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote operas, as well as some sacred music, songs, chamber music and piano pieces. A precocious composer of operas, he made his debut at the age of eighteen. His best-known operas include the Italian comedies Il barbiere di Siviglia, Litaliana in Algeri and he also wrote a string of serious operas in Italian, including works such as Tancredi, Otello and Semiramide. The semi-serious opera La Gazza Ladra has one of Rossinis most celebrated overtures, after moving to Paris in 1824, he eventually started to write in French. His last opera, the epic Guillaume Tell, replete with its iconic overture, after composing thirty-nine significant operas in nineteen years Rossini retired from the theatre in 1829. Later, he was affected by physical and mental illnesses and for decades wrote relatively little apart from a setting of the Stabat Mater. A return to Paris from Italy in 1855 was followed by better health, during these, he presented salon music in the form of songs, piano pieces and small chamber ensembles that he called Sins of Old Age. He considered the last of these Sins to be the unusually scored Petite messe solennelle that he wrote in 1863, Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history, and he was one of the most renowned public figures of his time. A rapid and prolific composer, he was quoted as joking, Give me the laundress bill, a tendency for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, earning him the nickname The Italian Mozart. Use of a build up of orchestral sound over a repeated phrase—commonly known as a Rossini crescendo—also prompted the nickname Signor Crescendo. Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born into a family of musicians in Pesaro and his father, Giuseppe, was a horn player and inspector of slaughterhouses. His mother, Anna, was a singer and a bakers daughter, Rossinis father was sympathetic to the French Revolution and welcomed Napoleons troops when they arrived in northern Italy. When Austria restored the old regime, Rossinis father was sent to prison in 1799, Rossinis mother took him to Bologna, making a living as leading singer at various theatres of the Romagna region. Her husband would ultimately join her in Bologna, during this time, Rossini was frequently left in the care of his aging grandmother, who had difficulty supervising the boy. He remained at Bologna in the care of a pork butcher while his father played the horn in the orchestras of the theatres at which his wife sang and these qualities made him a subject for ridicule in the eyes of the young Rossini. He was eventually taken from Prinetti and apprenticed to a blacksmith, in Angelo Tesei, he found a congenial music master, and learned to sight-read, play accompaniments on the piano and sing well enough to take solo parts in the church when he was ten years of age. Important products of this period are six sonate a quattro, or string sonatas, the original scores, dating from 1804 when the composer was twelve, were found in the Library of Congress in Washington D. C. In 1805, he appeared at the theatre of the Commune in Ferdinando Paers Camilla and he was also a capable horn player, treading in the footsteps of his father
17.
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
18.
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
19.
Le comte Ory
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Le comte Ory is an opéra written by Gioachino Rossini in 1828. Some of the music originates from his opera Il viaggio a Reims written three years earlier for the coronation of Charles X, the French libretto was by Eugène Scribe and Charles-Gaspard Delestre-Poirson adapted from a comedy they had first written in 1817. The work is ostensibly a comic opera in that the story is humorous, although the opera contains some of Rossinis most colorful orchestral writing, the quaint, brief overture is oddly restrained and unassuming, ending with a whisper of pizzicato strings. It was first performed on 20 August 1828 at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opera. It was given in London at the Kings Theatre in Italian on 28 February 1829, in New Orleans at the Théâtre dOrléans on 16 December 1830 and in New York on 22 August 1831. The opera is performed infrequently and, between 2008 and 2013, it stands at number 165 with 19 performance runs as listed on Operabase. com and that number was increased in April 2011 when the opera received its premiere performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The cast included Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato, in 2013, that production was revived with Juan Diego Flórez repeating his role, but with a different supporting cast. Time, Circa 1200, during the Crusades Place, Touraine The countryside before the castle of Formoutiers The lords, Count Ory, who is in love with the countess Adèle, takes advantage of the situation. Hoping to win her hand, he himself as a hermit aided by Raimbaud. Raimbaud announces that a wise hermit will visit the village to offer advice on matters of the heart, the castle is filled with women waiting for their husbands to return from the crusades. Orys page Isolier is in love with the countess, Isolier confides his love to the hermit and explains his plan to sneak into the castle disguised as a female pilgrim. The countess consults the hermit about a cure for her melancholia and he proposes that she fall in love, which she promptly does, with Isolier. The hermit warns her not to trust the page, everyone is shocked when the Tutor reveals Orys identity. The countess receives a letter announcing her brothers return, a large room in the castle The countess and her attendants admit a group of female pilgrims awaiting their husbands return from the crusade. This time the pilgrims are actually Ory and his men in disguise, Orys new disguise is as Sister Colette. Missing something to drink with dinner, Raimbaud breaks into the wine cellar. They toast the countesss absent brother, Isolier recognizes Ory and reveals his identity to Adèle. Isolier also tells the women that their husbands will be back by midnight
20.
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
21.
Adolphe Nourrit
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Adolphe Nourrit was a French operatic tenor, librettist, and composer. One of the most esteemed opera singers of the 1820s and 1830s, he was associated with the works of Gioachino Rossini. Nourrit was born on 3 March 1802 and raised in Montpellier and his father, Louis Nourrit, was a well-known operatic tenor and diamond merchant. Adolphe studied singing and musical theory with his father and then, despite his fathers objections and he began his performing career shortly after finishing his studies with García, which lasted for 18 months. Not yet 20 years of age, Adolphe Nourrit made his operatic debut in 1821 as Pylades in Glucks Iphigénie en Tauride. In 1826, he succeeded his father as the tenor at the Paris Opéra. While at the Opéra, he became a pupil of Gioachino Rossini with whom he would work frequently, Nourrit was an intelligent and cultured singer. He possessed a mellow and powerful vocal timbre during his prime and was a master of the head voice and his range extended up to E5, although he never went higher than D5 in public. This was a departure from the practice of earlier male operatic interpreters, as Nourrits status at the Opéra increased, so did his influence upon new productions and his advice and collaboration were sought by composers. For example, he wrote the words of Eléazars aria Rachel, quand du Seigneur and he had many successful students, including the dramatic soprano Cornélie Falcon. In addition, he was concerned more broadly with the aspects of singing. In the early 1830s, he embraced the ideas of Saint-Simonianism, beside singing and teaching, Nourrit composed and wrote scenarios for ballets at the Opéra de Paris, including the libretto for La Sylphide, which was based on Meyerbeers Robert le Diable. Nourrits fame faded in the late 1830s, however, as new singers gained the favour of the Parisian public. In October 1836, impresario Duponchel engaged Gilbert Duprez, who commanded an exciting high C from the chest, Nourrit accepted this arrangement as a hedge against his falling ill. After the performance, Hector Berlioz and George Osborne walked Nourrit up and down the streets as he despaired aloud, on 14 October, he resigned from the Opéra. Throughout this vexed period in his life, Nourrit enjoyed success as a recitalist and he was the first to introduce Franz Schuberts lieder to Parisian audiences at the celebrated soirées organized by Franz Liszt, Chrétien Urhan and Alexandre Batta at the Salons d’Erard in 1837. The intimacy of the salon apparently suited him well and although criticized for a voice, his singing displayed impressive nuances of feeling. His farewell performance at the Opéra happened on 1 April 1837 and he embarked immediately on a tour of the provinces, but a liver ailment forced him to cut short this venture
22.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
23.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
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The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is one of the largest reference works on Western music, in recent years it has been made available as an electronic resource called Grove Music Online, which is now an important part of Oxford Music Online. A Dictionary of Music and Musicians was first published in four volumes edited by George Grove with an Appendix edited by J. A. Fuller Maitland in the fourth volume, an Index edited by Mrs. E. Wodehouse was issued as a separate volume in 1890. In 1900, minor corrections were made to the plates and the series was reissued in four volumes. The original edition and the reprint are now available online. Grove limited the chronological span of his work to begin at 1450 while continuing up to the present day, the second edition, in five volumes, was edited by Fuller Maitland and published from 1904 to 1910, this time as Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians. The individual volumes of the edition were reprinted many times. An American Supplement edited by Waldo Selden Pratt and Charles N. Boyd was added in 1920 and this edition removed the first editions beginning date of 1450, though important earlier composers and theorists are still missing from this edition. These volumes are now freely available online. The third edition, also in five volumes, was a revision of the 2nd edition. The fourth edition, also edited by Colles, was published in 1940 in five volumes, in addition to the American Supplement, MacMillan also published a Supplementary Volume edited by Colles. The fifth edition, in nine volumes, was edited by Eric Blom and this was the most thoroughgoing revision of the work since its inception, with many articles rewritten in a more modern style and a large number of entirely new articles. Many of the articles were written by Blom personally, or translated by him, an additional Supplementary Volume, prepared for the most part by Eric Blom, followed in 1961. Blom died in 1959, and the Supplementary Volume was completed by Denis Stevens, the fifth edition was reprinted in 1966,1968,1970,1973, and 1975. The next edition was published in 1980 under the name The New Grove Dictionary of Music and its senior editor was Stanley Sadie with Nigel Fortune also serving as one of the main editors for the publication. It was reprinted with minor corrections each subsequent year until 1995, in the mid-1990s, the hardback set sold for about $2,300. A paperback edition was reprinted in 1995 which sold for $500, the second edition under this title was published in 2001, in 29 volumes. It was also available by subscription on the internet in a service called Grove Music Online
