1.
Il trittico
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Il trittico is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini. The work received its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918. Around 1904, Puccini first began planning a set of one-act operas, originally, he planned to write each opera to reflect one of the parts of Dantes Divine Comedy. However, he eventually based only Gianni Schicchi on Dantes epic poem, the link in the final work is that each opera deals with the concealment of a death. Today, it is common to see only one or two of the trittico operas performed in an evening, and sometimes one of them may be paired with another one-act opera by a different composer. The operas premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918, the critical reviews for Il trittico were mixed, most critics agreed that Gianni Schicchi was the best of the three operas. Il trittico premiered in Rome on 11 January 1919, Puccini, who had not been present for the New York premiere, attended the production at the Rome Opera House. The Rome production, especially Gianni Schicchi, received positive reviews, later that year, the triptych was staged at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with Tullio Serafin conducting and in Chicago. After these initial premieres, most opera companies began to perform the operas separately, a critically acclaimed production at the Metropolitan Opera opened on 20 April 2007, directed by Jack OBrien and was broadcast on television by PBSs Great Performances at the Met series. In this production Il tabarro was moved to 1927, Suor Angelica was set in 1938, a complete synopsis of each opera may be found in their individual articles Place, A barge on the Seine in Paris. The opera is dark and brooding, full of the violence. Time, The latter part of the 17th century and this second opera, Puccinis personal favorite, is an uplifting tale of religious redemption. The third opera is the most popular, a full of greed. Fisher, Burton D. Puccinis Il Trittico, the Victor Book of the Opera
2.
Giacomo Puccini
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Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian opera composer who has been called the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi. Puccinis early work was rooted in traditional late-19th-century romantic Italian opera, later, he successfully developed his work in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents. Puccinis most renowned works are La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, Puccini was born Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini in Lucca in Tuscany, in 1858. He was one of nine children of Michele Puccini and Albina Magi, the Puccini family was established in Lucca as a local musical dynasty by Puccinis great-great grandfather – also named Giacomo. This first Giacomo Puccini was maestro di cappella of the Cattedrale di San Martino in Lucca and he was succeeded in this position by his son, Antonio Puccini, and then by Antonios son Domenico, and Domenicos son Michele. Each of these men studied music at Bologna, and some additional musical studies elsewhere. Domenico Puccini studied for a time under Giovanni Paisiello, each composed music for the church. In addition, Domenico composed several operas, and Michele composed one opera, Puccinis father Michele enjoyed a reputation throughout northern Italy, and his funeral was an occasion of public mourning, at which the then-famed composer Giovanni Pacini conducted a Requiem. However, when Michele Puccini died in 1864, his son Giacomo was only six years old, as a child, he nevertheless participated in the musical life of the Cattedrale di San Martino, as a member of the boys choir and later as a substitute organist. Puccini was given an education at the seminary of San Michele in Lucca. One of Puccinis uncles, Fortunato Magi, supervised his musical education, Puccini got a diploma from the Pacini School of Music in Lucca in 1880, having studied there with his uncle Fortunato, and later with Carlo Angeloni, who had also instructed Alfredo Catalani. Puccini studied at the conservatory for three years, sharing a room with Pietro Mascagni, in 1880, at the age of 21, Puccini composed his Mass, which marks the culmination of his familys long association with church music in his native Lucca. Puccini wrote a piece called the Capriccio sinfonica as a thesis composition for the Milan Conservatory. Puccinis teachers Ponchielli and Bazzini were impressed by the work, and it was performed at a student concert at the conservatory on 14 July 1883, conducted by Franco Faccio. Puccinis work was reviewed in the Milanese publication Perseveranza. After the premiere of the Capriccio sinfonica, Ponchielli and Puccini discussed the possibility that Puccinis next work might be an opera, Ponchielli invited Puccini to stay at his villa, where Puccini was introduced to another young man named Fernando Fontana. Puccini and Fontana agreed to collaborate on an opera, for which Fontana would provide the libretto, the work, Le Villi, was entered into a competition sponsored by the Sozogno music publishing company in 1883. Although it did not win, Le Villi was later staged at the Teatro Dal Verme, G. Ricordi & Co. music publishers assisted with the premier by printing the libretto without charge
3.
Giuseppe Adami
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Giuseppe Adami was an Italian librettist, known for his collaboration with Giacomo Puccini on the operas La rondine, Il tabarro and Turandot. Adami also wrote plays, such as I fioi di Goldoni, Una capanna e il tuo cuore, Capelli bianchi, Felicità Colombo. The latter was adapted into a film in 1938 by director Mario Mattoli and he graduated at the University of Padua in Law but dedicated his career as a writer, theatre playwright, and then music critic. After the death of Puccini, Adami published a collection of the letters in Epistolario. He also published his recollections, Giacomo Puccini, which was one of the earliest biographies of the composer. He wrote a second biography Il romanzo della vita di Giacomo Puccini in 1942, Adami also wrote librettos for other composers including Riccardo Zandonais La via della finestra, and Franco Vittadinis Anima allegra and Nazareth. He was a critic for La sera and for the review La comedia from 1931 to 1934. Adami acted as publicist with the house of Ricordi to the end of his life and he died in Milan aged 67. Giuseppe Adami biography Giuseppe Adami at the Internet Movie Database La via della finestra Vocal score from Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
4.
Metropolitan Opera
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The Metropolitan Opera, commonly referred to as The Met, is a company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager, the music director position is in transition as of 2016. The music director designate is Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the director emeritus is James Levine. The Met was founded in 1880 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house, the Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. It presents about 27 different operas each year in a season lasts from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating schedule with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Moving to the new Lincoln Center location in 1966, performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday, several operas are presented in new productions each season. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other opera houses, the rest of the years operas are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons. The 2015-16 season comprised 227 performances of 25 operas, the operas in the Mets repertoire consist of a wide range of works, from 18th-century Baroque and 19th-century Bel canto to the Minimalism of the late 20th century. These operas are presented in staged productions that range in style from those with elaborate traditional decors to others that feature modern conceptual designs, the Mets performing company consists of a large symphony-sized orchestra, a chorus, childrens choir, and many supporting and leading solo singers. The company also employs numerous free-lance dancers, actors, musicians, the Mets roster of singers includes both international and American artists, some of whose careers have been developed through the Mets young artists programs. The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to New Yorks old established Academy of Music opera house, the subscribers to the Academys limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these old families were loath to admit New Yorks newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Operas founding subscribers determined to build a new house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. A group of some 22 men assembled at Delmonicos restaurant on April 28,1880 and they elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. The first Met subscribers included members of the Morgan, Roosevelt, the new Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22,1883, and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The Academy of Musics opera season folded just three years after the Met opened, in its early decades the Met did not produce the opera performances itself but hired prominent manager/impresarios to stage a season of opera at the new Metropolitan Opera House. Henry Abbey served as manager for the season, 1883–84
5.
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
6.
Italian language
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By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
7.
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
8.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
9.
Baritone
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A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice types. It is the most common male voice, the baritone voice type is generally divided into the baryton-Martin baritone, lyric baritone, Kavalierbariton, Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, baryton-noble baritone, and the bass-baritone. The first use of the term baritone emerged as baritonans, late in the 15th century, at this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices, but in 17th-century Italy the term was all-encompassing and used to describe the average male choral voice. Baritones took roughly the range as it is today at the beginning of the 18th century. Indeed, many works of the 18th century have roles marked as bass that in reality are low baritone roles. Examples of this are to be found, for instance, in the operas, the greatest and most enduring parts for baritones in 18th-century operatic music were composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They include Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Papageno in The Magic Flute and these included the likes of Filippo Galli, Giovanni Inchindi, and Henri-Bernard Dabadie. The basse-taille and the bass were commonly confused because their roles were sometimes sung by singers of either actual voice part. The bel canto style of vocalism which arose in Italy in the early 19th century supplanted the castrato-dominated opera seria of the previous century and it led to the baritone being viewed as a separate voice category from the bass. More often than not, however, baritones found themselves portraying villains, the principal composers of bel canto opera are considered to be, Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Giacomo Meyerbeer, and the young Giuseppe Verdi. Figaro in Il barbiere is often called the first true baritone role, however, Donizetti and Verdi in their vocal writing went on to emphasize the top fifth of the baritone voice, rather than its lower notes—thus generating a more brilliant sound. The major international baritone of the first half of the 19th century was the Italian Antonio Tamburini and he was a famous Don Giovanni in Mozarts eponymous opera as well as being a Bellini and Donizetti specialist. Commentators praised his voice for its beauty, flexibility and smooth tonal emission, Tamburinis range, however, was probably closer to that of a bass-baritone than to that of a modern Verdi baritone. His French equivalent was Henri-Bernard Dabadie, who was a mainstay of the Paris Opera between 1819 and 1836 and the creator of several major Rossinian baritone roles, including Guillaume Tell. Dabadie sang in Italy, too, where he originated the role of Belcore in Lelisir damore in 1832, the most important of Tamburinis Italianate successors were all Verdians. In France, Paul Barroilhet succeeded Dabadie as the Paris operas best known baritone, like Dabadie, he also sang in Italy and created an important Donizetti role, in his case, Alphonse in La favorite. Antonio Pini-Corsi was the standout Italian buffo baritone in the period between about 1880 and World War I, reveling in comic roles by Rossini, Donizetti and Paer. In 1893, he created the part of Ford in Verdis last opera, notable among their contemporaries were the cultured and technically adroit French baritones Jean Lassalle, Victor Maurel, Paul Lhérie, and Maurice Renaud
10.
Soprano
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A soprano is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The sopranos vocal range is from approximately middle C =261 Hz to high A =880 Hz in choral music, in four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto. The lyric soprano is the most common female singing voice, the word soprano comes from the Italian word sopra, as the soprano is the highest pitch human voice, often given to the leading female roles in operas. The term soprano is also based on the Latin word superius which, like soprano, the word superius was especially used in choral and other multi-part vocal music between the 13th and 16th centuries. The soprano has the highest vocal range of all voice types, a soprano and a mezzo-soprano have a similar range, but their tessituras will lie in different parts of that range. The low extreme for sopranos is roughly A3 or B♭3, within opera, the lowest demanded note for sopranos is F3. Often low notes in higher voices will project less, lack timbre, however, rarely is a soprano simply unable to sing a low note in a song within a soprano role. The high extreme, at a minimum, for non-coloratura sopranos is soprano C, a couple of roles have optional E♭6s, as well. In the coloratura repertoire several roles call for E♭6 on up to F6, in rare cases, some coloratura roles go as high as G6 or G♯6, such as Mozarts concert aria Popoli di Tessaglia. Or the title role of Jules Massenets opera Esclarmonde, while not necessarily within the tessitura, a good soprano will be able to sing her top notes full-throated, with timbre and dynamic control. In opera, the tessitura, vocal weight, and timbre of voices, a singers tessitura is where the voice has the best timbre, easy volume, and most comfort. Within the soprano voice type category are five generally recognized subcategories, coloratura soprano, soubrette, lyric soprano, spinto soprano, the coloratura soprano may be a lyric coloratura or a dramatic coloratura. The lyric coloratura soprano is a very agile light voice with a high upper extension capable of fast vocal coloratura, Light coloraturas have a range of approximately middle C to high F with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing somewhat higher or lower. Dramatic coloraturas have a range of approximately low B to high F with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing higher or lower. In classical music and opera, a soubrette soprano refers to both a type and a particular type of opera role. A soubrette voice is light with a bright, sweet timbre, a tessitura in the mid-range, the soubrette voice is not a weak voice, for it must carry over an orchestra without a microphone like all voices in opera. The voice, however, has a lighter weight than other soprano voices with a brighter timbre
11.
Claudia Muzio
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Claudia Muzio was an Italian operatic soprano, whose international career was among the most successful of the early 20th century. Her mother was a singer, Giovanna Gavirati. Muzio then continued her studies in Milan with Elettra Callery-Viviani. She was invited to the Met in New York in December 1916 and was so successful that she continued to appear there during six successive years. It was at the Metropolitan that Muzio created the role of Giorgetta in Il tabarro, in the world première of Puccinis triple bill, Il trittico and she established a special relationship with audiences at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, where she first appeared in June 1919. From then until 1934 she sang there in 23 different operas, between 1922 and 1932, she appeared regularly in Chicago. On 15 October 1932, she performed the role of Tosca to inaugurate the new War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. Her last and according to some critics her greatest role was in Rome in 1934 as Cecilia in the opera of that name written for her by Licinio Refice and her most popular role, however, was Violetta, in which she was considered unsurpassed throughout the Latin opera world. Muzio was noted for the beauty and warmth of her voice and her performances were sometimes criticised for excessive use of dynamic extremes, including her exquisitely expressive pianissimo singing. She remained modest and even reclusive despite her fame and wealth. In her later years, Muzio experienced some financial anxiety after losing money through the extravagance of a manager/rumoured lover, in 1929 she married Renato Liberati, seventeen years her junior. In 1930 she started to experience health problems, but continued singing and recording. On 24 May 1936, after an illness, she died in a Rome hotel of what was officially described as heart failure. She is buried in the Cimitero del Verano in Rome, Muzio is represented by recordings from various stages of her career, but few of them are from the period of her greatest successes in the late 1920s and early 1930s. She also recorded primarily for two companies whose distribution was limited and erratic, Pathé and Edison and she was aided at Edison by chief recordist Walter Miller and staff conductor Cesare Sodero. Muzio recorded two arias, including Sì, mi chiamano Mimì from La bohème, when she was only 22 and her voice and technique were still relatively immature. In October, Muzio appeared in the production of Tosca at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, the opening night was recorded for radio. Muzio personally produced and financed a set of 26 recordings for Columbia in 1934 and 1935, by 1935, there is some noticeable weakening of the top of her voice but her expressive powers are well-displayed, especially in Addio del passato from Verdis La traviata
12.
Stevedore
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A stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock laborer, wharfie, wharf rat, lumper, whombler, and/or longshoreman is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships. The word stevedore originated in Portugal or Spain, and entered the English language through its use by sailors. In Canada, the term stevedore has also used, for example, in the name of the Western Stevedoring Company, Ltd. based in Vancouver. Loading and unloading ships requires knowledge of the operation of loading equipment, the techniques for lifting and stowing cargo. In addition, workers must be strong and be able to follow orders attentively. In order to unload a ship successfully, many longshoreman are needed, there is only a limited amount of time that a ship can be at a port, so they need to get their jobs done quickly. In earlier days before the introduction of containerization, men who loaded and unloaded ships had to tie down cargoes with rope, a type of stopper knot is called the stevedore knot. The methods of tying up parcels of goods is called stevedore lashing or stevedore knotting. Today, the vast majority of cargo is transported in intermodal containers. The containers arrive at a port by truck, rail or another ship and are stacked in the storage area. When the ship that will be transporting them arrives, the containers that it is offloading are unloaded by a crane, the containers either leave the port by truck or rail or are put in the storage area until they are put on another ship. Once the ship is offloaded, the containers it is leaving with are brought to the dock by truck, a crane lifts the containers from the trucks into the ship. As the containers pile up in the ship, the workers connect them to the ship and those workers at the port who handle and move the containers are likely to be considered stevedores or longshoremen. Before containerization, freight was handled with a longshoreman’s hook. Traditionally, stevedores had no fixed job, but would arrive at the docks in the morning seeking employment for the day, London dockers called this practice standing on the stones, while in the United States it was referred to as shaping. In Britain, due to changes in employment laws, such jobs have become permanent or have been converted to temporary jobs. Dock workers have been a prominent part of the labor movement. Container handling in Hong Kong -2005 In Australia, the informal term wharfie, the term stevedore is also sometimes used, as in the company name Patrick Stevedores
13.
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
14.
Bass (voice type)
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A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C. Its tessitura, or comfortable range, is defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef. Categories of bass voices vary according to style and classification system. Italians favour subdividing basses into the basso cantante, basso buffo, the American system identifies the bass-baritone, comic bass, lyric bass, and dramatic bass. The German fach system offers further distinctions, Spielbaß, Schwerer Spielbaß, Charakterbaß, rare is the performer who embodies a single fach without also touching repertoire from another category. Cultural influence and individual variation create a variation in range. Many British composers such as Benjamin Britten have written parts for bass that center far higher than the bass tessitura as implied by the clef, the Harvard Dictionary of Music defines the range as being from the E below low C to middle C. The bass has the lowest vocal range of all voice types, the low extreme for basses is generally C2. However, several extreme bass singers, referred to as basso profondos, within opera, the lowest note in the standard bass repertoire is D2, sung by the character Osmin in Mozarts Die Entführung aus dem Serail, but few roles fall below F2. The high extreme, a few roles in the standard repertoire call for a high F♯ or G. In the operatic repertoire, the highest notes are a G♯4 and, in the aria Fra lombre e glorrori in Handels serenata Aci. Basso cantante is a higher, more lyrical voice and it is produced using a more Italianate vocal production, and possesses a faster vibrato, than its closest Germanic/Anglo-Saxon equivalent, the bass-baritone. Hoher Bass or high bass or often a dramatic bass-baritone, jugendlicher Bass denotes the role of a young man sung by a bass, regardless of the age of the singer. They are usually the blustering antagonist of the hero/heroine or the fool in bel canto operas. English equivalent, dramatic bass Basso profondo is the lowest bass voice type, steane in Voices, Singers & Critics, the basso profondo voice derives from a method of tone-production that eliminates the more Italian quick vibrato. In its place is a kind of tonal solidity, a front, which may nevertheless prove susceptible to the other kind of vibrato. Dramatic basso profondo is a basso profondo voice
15.
Adamo Didur
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Adam Didur or Adamo Didur was a famous Polish operatic bass singer. He sang extensively in Europe and had a career at New Yorks Metropolitan Opera from 1908 to 1932. He was born on 24 December 1874 in Wola Sękowa near Sanok, Didur studied in Lwów with Valery Wysocki and later with Franz Emmerich in Milan. He made his debut as a soloist at a concert performance of Ludwig van Beethovens Ninth Symphony in Milan. His operatic stage debut came in 1894 as Méphistophélès in Gounods Faust in Rio de Janeiro, besides South America, he also toured Egypt and Italy in 1894, including the small town of Pierolo near Turin where he met his first wife, a Mexican singer Angela Aranda Arellano. After steady years at Warsaw Opera from 1899 to 1903, Didur launched a career at major European opera houses and his guest appearances in Spain and Russia in 1903 were followed by La Scala years 1903-1906, first appearing there as Wotan in Das Rheingold. His debut at Londons Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, was in the role of Colline in La bohème on the night of the 1905 season. He travelled later to Argentina, singing in Buenos Aires in the 1905–1908 operatic seasons, in 1914, he returned to London to sing Baron Archibaldo at the British premiere of Montemezzis Lamore dei tre re and a few other roles. His North American debut was as Alvise in Ponchiellis La Gioconda at the season opening of Hammersteins Manhattan Opera House. He remained with the company for a quarter of a century and became one of its principal bass singers and it was at the Met in 1913 that he appeared in the title role of Boris Godunov in the American premiere of Mussorgskys opera. Didur created the roles in three operas by Giacomo Puccini at the Met, La fanciulla del West and the Il tabarro and he also appeared at the world premiere of Humperdincks Die Königskinder. His other important firsts at the Met include the US premieres of Mozarts Così fan tutte, Smetanas The Bartered Bride, Borodins Prince Igor, and Montemezzis Lamore dei tre re. He also sang under the baton of Gustav Mahler in Mozarts Le nozze de Figaro, Smetanas The Bartered Bride, didurs last appearance at the Met was in the role of Coppélius in Les Contes dHoffmann on 11 February 1932. His voice had been on the wane for some time and he returned to live in Europe. Two months before the outbreak of World War II, Didur was appointed director of the Warsaw Opera and he continued his work as a professor in Lwów and then Katowice, where he also started working on founding an opera company. Soon after the war ended in 1945, he was appointed the first director of the Silesian Opera, which opened with the performance of Moniuszkos opera Halka that Didur produced. He died on 7 January 1946 in Katowice, Didur was twice married, with his first wife, the Mexican singer Angela Aranda Arellano, he had five children, two of whom later became singers themselves. After her death he married the French dancer Marguerite Vignon in 1928, didurs large, sonorous and magnificently rich-toned voice was in its prime between the late 1890s and the World War I period
16.
Mezzo-soprano
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A mezzo-soprano or mezzo is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-sopranos vocal range extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above. In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C, the mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic mezzo-soprano. Mezzo-sopranos are well represented in music, early music. Some roles designated for lighter soubrette sopranos are sung by mezzo-sopranos, such roles include Despina in Mozarts Così fan tutte and Zerlina in his Don Giovanni. Mezzos sometimes play dramatic soprano roles such as Santuzza in Mascagnis Cavalleria rusticana, Lady Macbeth in Verdis Macbeth, the vocal range of the mezzo-sopranos lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. Mezzo-sopranos generally have a heavier, darker tone than sopranos, the mezzo-soprano voice resonates in a higher range than that of a contralto. The terms Dugazon and Galli-Marié are sometimes used to refer to light mezzo-sopranos, usually men singing within the female range are called countertenors since there is a lighter more breathy tonal quality difference. Within the mezzo-soprano voice type category are three generally recognized subcategories, coloratura mezzo-soprano, lyric mezzo-soprano, and dramatic mezzo-soprano, a coloratura mezzo-soprano has a warm lower register and an agile high register. The roles they sing often demand not only the use of the register but also leaps into the upper tessitura with highly ornamented. They have a range from approximately the G below middle C to the B two octaves above middle C, some coloratura mezzo-sopranos can sing up to high C or high D, but this is very rare. What distinguishes these voices from being called sopranos is their extension into the register and warmer vocal quality. Although coloratura mezzo-sopranos have impressive and at times thrilling high notes, they are most comfortable singing in the middle of their range, many of the hero roles in the operas of Handel and Monteverdi, originally sung by male castrati, can be successfully sung today by coloratura mezzo-sopranos. Rossini demanded similar qualities for his heroines, and Vivaldi wrote roles frequently for this voice as well. Coloratura mezzo-sopranos also often sing lyric-mezzo-soprano roles or soubrette roles, coloratura mezzo-soprano roles in operas, The lyric mezzo-soprano has a range from approximately the G below middle C to the A two octaves above middle C. This voice has a smooth, sensitive and at times lachrymose quality. Lyric mezzo-sopranos do not have the agility of the coloratura mezzo-soprano or the size of the dramatic mezzo-soprano. The lyric mezzo-soprano is ideal for most trouser roles and this voice has less vocal facility than the coloratura mezzo-soprano
17.
Alice Gentle
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Alice Gentle was an American operatic mezzo-soprano. She was born on June 30,1885 in Chatsworth, Illinois and she began her career in 1908 as a member of the opera chorus in Oscar Hammerstein Is Manhattan Opera Company. Impressed with Gentles talents, Hammerstein began casting her in roles in MOC productions in 1909. In 1916 Gentle portrayed the role of Federico in Ambroise Thomass Mignon at La Scala in Milan and she sang one season at the Metropolitan Opera, making her debut with the company in 1918 as Preziosilla in La forza del destino. Later that year she created the role of Frugola in the premiere of Puccinis Il Tabarro. Her only other role at the Met was Fatima in Oberon in 1919, in 1923 she toured the United States as Carmen with the San Carlo Opera Company. She appeared in three films during the early 1930s, The Song of the Flame, Golden Dawn, in 1940 she made her final stage appearance at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera as Mrs. Cripps in H. M. S. She died on February 28,1958 in Oakland, California, alice Gentle at the Internet Movie Database
18.
Marie Tiffany
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Marie Berg Tiffany was an American operatic soprano. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1916-1928 and she created roles in several world premieres at the Met and was notably the only performer to appear in all three one act operas at the premiere of Giacomo Puccinis Il Trittico in 1918. She was born Marie Berg on July 8,1881 in Chicago, Tiffany married court reporter Willis N. Tiffany in 1900 and resided with him for 16 years in California where she was a soloist at the First Presbyterian Church of Pasadena. In 1916 she moved to New York City where she became a member of the Metropolitan Opera. She made her Met debut on November 17,1916 as the Milliner in Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier under conductor Artur Bodanzky and she remained at the Met for the next 12 years, singing mainly comprimario roles. She also portrayed the role of Pomone in the United States premiere of Xavier Lerouxs La reine Fiammette. Some of her other Met roles were Clémence in Mireille, Frasquita in Carmen, Gerhilde in Die Walküre, Giannetta in Lelisir damore, the High Priestess in Aida, Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Mme. Dufresne in Zazà, Poussette in Manon, the Sandman in Hänsel und Gretel, Suzanne in Louise, and her last appearance in an opera at the Met was on April 7,1928 as Nella in Gianni Schicchi. She returned to the Met stage for one appearance in 1929. She died on April 12,1948 in Manhattan, New York City
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Barge
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A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and must be towed or pushed by towboats, Barge is attested from 1300, from Old French barge, from Vulgar Latin barga. The word originally could refer to any small boat, the modern meaning arose around 1480, bark small ship is attested from 1420, from Old French barque, from Vulgar Latin barca. The more precise meaning three-masted ship arose in the 17th century, both are probably derived from the Latin barica, from Greek, βάρις, translit. Egyptian boat, from Coptic, ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ bāri small boat, hieroglyphic Egyptian, by extension, the term embark literally means to board the kind of boat called a barque. The long pole used to maneuver or propel a barge has given rise to the saying I wouldnt touch that with a barge pole. On the British canal system, the barge is used to describe a boat wider than a narrowboat. In the United States, deckhands perform the labor and are supervised by a leadman or the mate, the captain and pilot steer the towboat, which pushes one or more barges held together with rigging, collectively called the tow. The crew live aboard the towboat as it travels along the river system or the intracoastal waterways. These towboats travel between ports and are also called line-haul boats, poles are used on barges to fend off the barge as it nears other vessels or a wharf. These are often called pike poles, barges are used today for low-value bulk items, as the cost of hauling goods by barge is very low. Barges are also used for heavy or bulky items, a typical American barge measures 195 by 35 feet. The most common European barge measures 76.5 by 11.4 metres, as an example, on June 26,2006, a 565-short-ton catalytic cracking unit reactor was shipped by barge from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma to a refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Extremely large objects are normally shipped in sections and assembled onsite, of the reactors 700-mile journey, only about 40 miles were traveled overland, from the final port to the refinery. Canal barges are made for the particular canal in which they will operate. Many barges, primarily Dutch barges, which were designed for carrying cargo along the canals of Europe, are no longer large enough to compete in this industry with larger newer vessels. Many of these barges have been renovated and are now used as hotel barges carrying holidaymakers along the same canals on which they once carried grain or coal. This holds true today, for areas of the world
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Seine
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The Seine is a 777-kilometre-long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Source-Seine,30 kilometres northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and it is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen,120 kilometres from the sea. There are 37 bridges within Paris and dozens more spanning the river outside the city, examples in Paris include the Pont Alexandre III and Pont Neuf, the latter of which dates back to 1607. Outside the city, examples include the Pont de Normandie, one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in the world, the Seine rises in the commune of Source-Seine, about 30 kilometres northwest of Dijon. The source has been owned by the city of Paris since 1864, a number of closely associated small ditches or depressions provide the source waters, with an artificial grotto laid out to highlight and contain a deemed main source. The grotto includes a statue of a nymph, on the same site are the buried remains of a Gallo-Roman temple. Small statues of the dea Sequana Seine goddess and other ex voti found at the place are now exhibited in the Dijon archeological museum. The Seine is dredged and oceangoing vessels can dock at Rouen,120 kilometres from the sea, commercial riverboats can use the river from Bar-sur-Seine,560 kilometres to its mouth. At Paris, there are 37 bridges, the river is only 24 metres above sea level 446 kilometres from its mouth, making it slow flowing and thus easily navigable. The Seine Maritime,105.7 kilometres from the English Channel at Le Havre to Rouen, is the portion of the Seine used by ocean-going craft. The tidal section of the Seine Maritime is followed by a section with four large multiple locks until the mouth of the Oise at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. Multiple locks at Bougival / Chatou and at Suresnes lift the vessels to the level of the river in Paris, upstream from Paris seven locks ensure navigation to Saint Mammès, where the Loing mouth is situated. Through an eighth lock the river Yonne is reached at Montereau-Fault-Yonne, from the mouth of the Yonne, larger ships can continue upstream to Nogent-sur-Seine. From there on, the river is only by small craft. All navigation ends abruptly at Marcilly-sur-Seine, where the ancient Canal de la Haute-Seine used to allow vessels to continue all the way to Troyes and this canal has been abandoned for many years. The average depth of the Seine today at Paris is about 9.5 metres. Until locks were installed to raise the level in the 1800s, the river was much shallower within the city most of the time, today the depth is tightly controlled and the entire width of the river between the built-up banks on either side is normally filled with water. The average flow of the river is low, only a few cubic metres per second
21.
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
22.
Street organ
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A street organ is an automatic mechanical pneumatic organ designed to be mobile enough to play its music in the street. The two most commonly seen types are the smaller German and the larger Dutch street organ, many were built by Italian organ builders who had settled in France and Germany, creating companies such as Frati, Gavioli, Gasparini and Fassano. These early organs had more pipes than the serinette, could more than one tune. Wooden bass pipes were placed underneath the organ and on the front were often mounted a set of pan-flutes or piccolo pipes, with decorative finishes. In New York City, the influx of Italian immigrants led to a situation where by 1880 nearly one in 20 Italian men in certain areas were organ grinders. An unfortunate consequence was the destruction of hundreds of organs, the barrels of which contained a record of the music of the day. Before the invention of the record player, this was the only permanent recording of these tunes. The law that banned barrel organs in New York was repealed in 1975, many cities in the United Kingdom also had ordinances prohibiting organ grinders. The authorities often encouraged policemen to treat the grinders as beggars or public nuisances, in Paris there were a limited number of permits for organ grinders, and entry in that reserved circle was based on a waiting list or seniority system. According to Ord-Hume the disappearance of organ grinders from European streets was in part due to the early application of national and international copyright laws. The organ grinder was a musical novelty street performer of the 19th century and the part of the 20th century. Period literature often represents the grinder as a gentleman of ill repute or as a representative of the lower classes. Newspaper reporters would sometimes describe them cynically or jocularly as minor extortionists who were paid to keep silent, later depictions would stress the romantic or picturesque aspects of the activity. Whereas some organ grinders were very likely itinerants or vagabonds, many, the strap around his neck would balance the organ, leaving one hand free to turn the crank and the other to steady the organ. A tin cup on top of the organ or in the hand of a companion, was used to solicit payments for his performance. The largest organs were usually mounted on a cart, and required a team of operators to move, the most elaborate organs would have mechanical figures or automata mounted on top of or in the front of the case, along with percussion instruments. Their dreadful music is the result of a purely mechanical gesture, there are in London around a dozen firms specialising in the manufacture of piano organs, which they hire out for 15 shillings a week. As a result, the beggars of London live mainly on the poor, Music lovers usually hated the organ grinders, since most grinders seemed to be tone-deaf and lacking any sense of rhythm
23.
Rouen
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Rouen is a city on the River Seine in the north of France. It is the capital of the region of Normandy, formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy during the Middle Ages. It was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman dynasties, which ruled both England and large parts of modern France from the 11th to the 15th centuries. The population of the area at the 2007 census was 532,559. People from Rouen are known as Rouennais, Rouen and its metropolitan area of 70 suburban communes form the Agglomeration community of Rouen-Elbeuf-Austreberthe, with 494,382 inhabitants at the 2010 census. Rouen was founded by the Gaulish tribe of Veliocasses, who controlled an area in the lower Seine valley. The Gauls named the settlement Ratumacos and the Romans called it Rotomagus, Roman Rotomagus was the second city of Gallia Lugdunensis, after Lugdunum. In the 5th century, it became the seat of a bishopric, in the 10th century Rouen became the capital of the Duchy of Normandy and the residence of the dukes, until William the Conqueror established his castle at Caen. During the early 12th century the population reached 30,000. In 1150, Rouen received its charter, which permitted self-government. During the 12th century, Rouen was probably the site of a Jewish yeshiva, at that time, about 6,000 Jews lived in the town, comprising about 20% of the total population. The well-preserved remains of a medieval Jewish building, that could be a yeshiva, were discovered in the 1970s under the Rouen Law Courts. In 1200, a destroyed part of Rouens Romanesque cathedral, leaving just St Romains tower, the side porches of its front. New work on the present Gothic cathedral of Rouen began, in the nave, transept, choir, on 24 June 1204, Philip Augustus entered Rouen and annexed Normandy to the French Kingdom. The fall of Rouen meant the end of Normandys sovereign status and he demolished the Norman castle and replaced it with his own, the Château Bouvreuil, built on the site of the Gallo-Roman amphitheatre. A textile industry developed based on wool imported from England, competing with the northern County of Flanders, the city found its market niche in the Champagne fairs. Rouen also depended on the traffic of the Seine for its prosperity. Wine and wheat were exported to England, with tin and wool received in return, in the late 13th century urban strife threatened the city, in 1291, the mayor was assassinated and noble residences in the city were pillaged
24.
Tito Gobbi
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Tito Gobbi was an Italian operatic baritone with an international reputation. He made his debut in Gubbio in 1935 as Count Rodolfo in Bellinis La sonnambula. By the time he retired in 1979 he had acquired a repertoire of almost 100 operatic roles and they ranged from Rossinis Barber through Donizetti and the standard Verdi and Puccini baritone roles to Alban Bergs Wozzeck. Gobbi and Tilda had a daughter, Cecilia, who now runs the Associazione Musicale Tito Gobbi and he was also the brother-in-law of one of his famous colleagues at Covent Garden, the Bulgarian-born bass, Boris Christoff. Gobbi retired in 1979 and died in Rome in 1984, aged 70, Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa. He began his studies in law at the University of Padua and, during time, his talent was discovered by a family friend, Baron Agostino Zanchetta. Accompanying Gobbi on the piano at his first audition was Tilde De Rensis, in 1937, she became his wife. After his 1935 debut in Gubbio singing the role of Count Rodolfo in Vincenzo Bellinis La sonnambula, in 1937 he sang Germont in La traviata for the first time in Rome at Teatro Adriano. But working at La Scala in Milan for the 1935–1936 season as an understudy, gave him a breadth of experience, in 1942, he debuted at the house in the role of Belcore in Donizettis Lelisir damore conducted by Tullio Serafin. He also appeared at the Rome Opera from 1938 onward in stage such as singing the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly under conductor Victor de Sabata. Other significant Italian venues in these years included La Fenice in Venice where, in 1941 he appeared as Marcello in La bohème. In Rome in 1942 he performed his first Falstaff at La Scala under de Sabata and and these performances made him famous in the first Italian performances of Bergs opera. He sang the role later in Italy and in Vienna under Karl Böhm. During these years, Gobbi also kept working in films. Gobbis international career blossomed after World War II, with appearances in 1948 at the San Francisco Opera and he performed for the first time at Londons Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1950 and sang with the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1954 until 1974. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1956 as Scarpia in Tosca, there was, however, one incident in his relationship with Covent Garden which caused a stir. In 1955 he had engaged as Iago in a major new production of Verdis Otello but was delayed in reaching the theatre for rehearsal. The new music director, Rafael Kubelík, determined to impose discipline on singers, the company baritone Otakar Kraus, already scheduled to sing some performances, took on all of them
25.
Giacinto Prandelli
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Giacinto Prandelli was an Italian operatic tenor, particularly associated with the Italian and French repertoires. Born in Lumezzane, Italy, Prandelli sang as a boy in a church choir and he studied in Rome with Fornarini, and in Brescia with Grandini, and made his stage debut at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, as Rodolfo, in 1942. He sang the tenor part in Beethovens Ninth Symphony, under Arturo Toscanini in 1946. In the early 1950s, he began a career, appearing in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Lisbon. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1951, his San Francisco Opera debut in 1954, and his Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1956. He excelled in Italian and French lyric roles, such as, Edgardo, Duca di Mantua, Alfredo, Enzo, Rodolfo, Pinkerton, Cavaradossi, des Grieux, Werther, Gounods and Boitos Faust, etc. He also sang in many works by Alfano, Wolf-Ferrari, Menotti. Prandellis final stage appearance was in 1976 as Paolo in Francesca da Rimini at the Teatro Grande in Brescia and he can be heard in a number of recordings, notably, La bohème, Fedora, Adriana Lecouvreur, Francesca da Rimini. He appeared in a production of Manon Lescaut, opposite Clara Petrella in 1956. The book was launched at Milans La Scala in the presence of Prandelli himself six years before his death in 2010, giacinto Prandelli at the Internet Movie Database
26.
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
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The Teatro dellOpera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has several changes of name as well modifications. The Teatro dellOpera was originally known as the Teatro Costanzi after the contractor who built it and it was financed by Costanzi, who commissioned the Milanese architect Achille Sfondrini, a specialist in the building and renovation of theatres. Designing the theatre, Sfondrini paid particular attention to the acoustics, conceiving the interior structure as a resonance chamber, as is evident from the horseshoe shape in particular. With a seating capacity of 2,212, the house had three tiers of boxes, an amphitheatre and two galleries, surmounted by a dome adorned with splendid frescoes by Annibale Brugnoli. Costanzi was obliged to manage the theater himself, under his direction, and despite financial problems, the opera house held many world premieres of operas, including Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni on 17 May 1890. For a brief period the theatre was managed by Costanzis son, Enrico, who gained renown by organizing another great premiere, in 1907 the Teatro Costanzi was purchased by the impresario Walter Mocchi on behalf of the Società Teatrale Internazionale e Nazionale. In 1912 Mocchis wife, Emma Carelli, became the director of the new Impresa Costanzi, as the theatre was later known. During the fourteen years of her tenure, major works which had not been performed before in Rome were staged, in November 1926 the Costanzi was bought by the Rome City Council and its name changed to Teatro Reale dellOpera. A partial rebuilding ensued, led by architect Marcello Piacentini and lasting fifteen months, the house re-opened on 27 February 1928 with the opera Nerone by Arrigo Boito. Chief among several major changes was the entrance, from the street formerly known as Via del Teatro to the opposite side. In addition, the amphitheatre inside the theatre was replaced by a tier of boxes. The interior was embellished by new stuccowork, decorations, and furnishings, including a magnificent chandelier measuring six meters in diameter, the theaters legendary acoustics still bear comparison with any other auditorium in the world. The seating capacity is about 1,600, the house was retrofitted with air-conditioning subsequent to a restoration, which provided improvements to the interior. The stucco work was restored, the great proscenium arch strengthened. The post-war period saw celebrated productions, including Mozarts Le nozze di Figaro in 1964 and Verdis Don Carlos in 1965, from 2001 to 2010, the music director and chief conductor of the company was Gianluigi Gelmetti. Later, Muti assumed a similar to that of music director. Notable productions under Muti have included Glucks Iphigénie en Aulide, Verdis Nabucco, Simon Boccanegra, the name Teatro Costanzi remains officially in use, to refer to the main auditorium
27.
EMI
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EMI was a British multinational conglomerate founded in March 1931 and was based in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, it was the fourth-largest business group and its EMI Records Ltd. group of record labels included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records and Capitol Records. EMI also had a publishing arm, EMI Music Publishing—also based in London with offices globally. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE100 Index, other members of the Sony consortium include the Estate of Michael Jackson, The Blackstone Group, and Abu Dhabi–owned investment fund Mubadala Development Company. The new vertically integrated company produced sound recordings as well as recording, the companys gramophone manufacturing led to forty years of success with larger-scale electronics and electrical engineering. He was killed in 1942 whilst conducting flight trials on an experimental H2S radar set, post-war, the company resumed its involvement in making broadcasting equipment, notably providing the BBCs second television transmitter at Sutton Coldfield. It also manufactured broadcast television cameras for British television production companies as well as for the BBC, the commercial television ITV companies also used them alongside cameras made by Pye and Marconi. Exports of this piece of equipment were low, however, the company was also for many years an internationally respected manufacturer of photomultipliers. This part of the business was transferred to Thorn as part of Thorn-EMI, in 1958 the EMIDEC1100, the UKs first commercially available all-transistor computer, was developed at Hayes under the leadership of Godfrey Hounsfield, an electrical engineer at EMI. In 1973 EMI was awarded a prestigious Queens Award for Technological Innovation for what was called the EMI scanner. After brief, but brilliant, success in the imaging field, EMIs manufacturing activities were sold off to other companies. Subsequently, development and manufacturing activities were sold off to companies and work moved to other towns such as Crawley. Emihus Electronics, based in Glenrothes, Scotland, was owned 51% by Hughes Aircraft, of California, US and it manufactured integrated circuits electrolytic capacitors and, for a short period in the mid-1970s, hand-held calculators under the Gemini name. Early in its life, the Gramophone Company established subsidiary operations in a number of countries in the British Commonwealth, including India, Australia. Over 150,000 78-rpm recordings from around the world are held in EMIs temperature-controlled archive in Hayes, in 1931, the year the company was formed, it opened the legendary recording studios at Abbey Road, London. During the 1930s and 1940s, its roster of artists included Arturo Toscanini, Sir Edward Elgar, during this time EMI appointed its first A&R managers. These included George Martin, who brought the Beatles into the EMI fold. When the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1931, at this point RCA had a majority shareholding in the new company, giving RCA chair David Sarnoff a seat on the EMI board
28.
Robert Merrill
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Robert Merrill was an American operatic baritone and actor, who was also active in the musical theatre circuit. He received the National Medal of Arts in 1993, Merrill was born Moishe Miller, later known as Morris Miller, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. He was the son of tailor Abraham Miller, originally Milstein and his paternal grandaparents were Berl Milstein and Chana, both from Pultusk, Poland. His mother claimed to have had an operatic and concert career in Poland and encouraged her son to have voice training, he had a tendency to stutter. In his early appearances as a crooner he was sometimes billed as Merrill Miller. With Toscanini conducting, he sang in two of the maestros NBC broadcasts of famous operas, La traviata, and Un ballo in maschera. Both of those broadcasts were released on both LP and CD by RCA Victor. Merrills 1944 operatic debut was in Verdis Aida at Newark, New Jersey, with the famous tenor Giovanni Martinelli, then in the later stages of his long operatic career. Also in 1945, Merrill recorded a 78 rpm record set with Jeanette MacDonald, featuring selections from the operetta Up in Central Park, MacDonald and Merrill did two duets together on this album. In 1952 Merrill, Björling, and Victoria de los Ángeles made a widely admired RCA Victor recording of Puccinis La bohème, in 1953, Merrill, Björling, de los Angeles and Zinka Milanov recorded the complete Pagliacci and Cavalleria rusticana. His role in the comedy film Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick led to a conflict with Sir Rudolf Bing. Merrill sang many different baritone roles, and after the untimely death of the celebrated Leonard Warren in 1960. He was described by Time as one of the Mets best baritones and he was accused by the reviewer of loud, coarse sounds and no grace, no charm, as he butchered the text and galumphed around the stage. Merrill appeared on Voice of Firestone with Joanne Hill, Merrill also continued to perform on radio and television, in nightclubs and recitals. In 1973, Merrill teamed up with Richard Tucker to present a concert at Carnegie Hall—a first for the two vocal supermen, and a first for the demanding New York public and critics, Merrill recalled. The event marked a precedent that led to the Three Tenors concerts many years later. Merrill retired from the Met in 1976, for many years, he led services, often in Borscht Belt hotels, on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. In honor of Merrills vast influence on American vocal music, on February 16,1981 he was awarded the prestigious University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit, the AGMA Relief Fund, award sponsor, provides financial assistance and support services to classical performing artists in need
29.
Renata Tebaldi
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Renata Tebaldi was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period. Tebaldi was born Renata Ersilia Clotilde Tebaldi in Pesaro on 1 February 1922 and she was the daughter of a cellist, Teobaldo Tebaldi, and Giuseppina Barbieri, a nurse. Her parents separated before her birth and Tebaldi grew up with her mother in the home of her grandparents in Langhirano. Stricken with polio at the age of three, Tebaldi became interested in music and was a member of the choir in Langhirano. She later studied with Beverley Peck Johnson in New York City, Tebaldi made her stage debut as Elena in Boitos Mefistofele in Rovigo in 1944, and performed in Parma in La Bohème, Lamico Fritz and Andrea Chénier. She caused a stir when in 1946 she made her debut as Desdemona alongside Francesco Merli as Otello in Trieste and her major breakthrough came in 1946, when she auditioned for Arturo Toscanini. Toscanini was favorably impressed, calling her voce dangelo, Tebaldi made her La Scala debut that year at the concert which marked the reopening of the theatre after World War II. She sang the Prayer from Rossinis biblical opera, Mosè in Egitto and she was given the operatic roles of Margherita and Elena in Mefistofele and Elsa in Lohengrin in 1946. The following year, she appeared in La Bohème and as Eva in Die Meistersinger, Toscanini encouraged her to sing the role of Aida and invited her to rehearse the role in his studio. This was the greatest success in her young career and was to launch her international career. Her voice was used for Sophia Lorens singing in the version of Aida. During the early 1950s, controversy regarding a supposed rivalry between Tebaldi and Maria Callas, a Greek-American soprano. In 1951, Tebaldi and Maria Callas were jointly booked for a recital in Rio de Janeiro. Although the singers agreed that neither would perform encores, Tebaldi took two, and Callas was reportedly incensed, according to John Ardoin, however, these two singers should never have been compared. Tebaldi was trained by Carmen Melis, a noted verismo specialist, Callas was a dramatic soprano, whereas Tebaldi considered herself essentially a lyric soprano. They shared a few roles, including Tosca in Puccinis opera and La Gioconda, the alleged rivalry aside, Callas made remarks appreciative of Tebaldi, and vice versa. During an interview with Norman Ross in Chicago, Callas said, I admire Tebaldis tone, sometimes, I actually wish I had her voice. Francis Robinson of the Met wrote of an incident in which Tebaldi asked him to recommend a recording of La Gioconda in order to help her learn the role, being fully aware of the alleged rivalry, he recommended Zinka Milanovs version
30.
Mario Del Monaco
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Mario Del Monaco was an Italian operatic tenor who earned worldwide acclaim for his powerful voice. Del Monaco was born in Florence to a musical upper-class family, as a young boy he studied the violin but had a passion for singing. He graduated from the Rossini Conservatory at Pesaro, where he first met and sang with Renata Tebaldi and his early mentors as a singer included Arturo Melocchi, his teacher at Pesaro, and Maestro Raffaelli, who recognized his talent and helped launch his career. That career began in earnest with Del Monacos debut on 31 December 1940 as Pinkerton at the Puccini Theater in Milan and he sang in Italy during the Second World War and married, in 1941, Rina Filipini. In 1946, he appeared at Londons Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, during the ensuing years he became famous not only in London but also across the operatic world for his powerful voice and heroic acting style. It was almost heldentenor-like in scope but Del Monaco was no Wagnerian, Del Monaco sang at the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1951 to 1959, enjoying particular success in dramatic Verdi parts such as Radamès. He soon established himself as one of four Italian tenor superstars who reached the peak of their fame in the 1950s and 60s, Del Monacos trademark roles during this period were Giordanos Andrea Chénier and Verdis Otello. He first tackled Otello in 1950 and kept refining his interpretation throughout his career and it is said that he sang Otello an astonishing 427 times. However, the published by Elisabetta Romagnolo, Mario Del Monaco, Monumentum aere perennius, Azzali 2002, lists only 218 appearances by him as Otello. Aptly, the tenor was buried in his Otello costume, Del Monaco made his first recordings in Milan in 1948 for HMV. Later, he was partnered by Renata Tebaldi in a series of Verdi. On the same label was his 1969 recording of Giordanos Fedora, opposite Magda Olivero and his ringing voice and virile appearance earned him the nickname of the Brass Bull of Milan. Despite his idiomatic phrasing, he was widely criticized for being unsubtle. In this regard, the soprano Magda Olivero noted in a recent interview that, When Del Monaco and I sang Francesca da Rimini together at La Scala he explained his whole vocal technique to me. When he finished I said, My dear Del Monaco, if I had to put into all the things you’ve told me, I’d stop singing right away. The technique was so complicated, you push the larynx down, then you push this up, then you do that—in short, it made my head spin just to hear everything he did. Francesca has a phrase, Paolo, datemi pace, marked piano, and then Paolo enters with Inghirlandata di violette. Instead, Del Monaco was terrible—he bellowed the phrase, when he listened to the playback he exclaimed, I can’t believe it
31.
Decca Records
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Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U. S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis along with American Deccas first president Jack Kapp and later American Decca president Milton Rackmil. In 1937, as a result of anticipating Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca, the British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre. Both wings are now part of the Universal Music Group, which is owned by Vivendi, the US Decca label was the foundation company that evolved into UMG. The name Decca was coined by Wilfred S. Samuel by merging the word Mecca with the initial D of their logo Dulcet or their trademark Dulcephone, Samuel, a linguist, chose Decca as a brand name as it was easy to pronounce in most languages. The name dates back to a gramophone called the Decca Dulcephone patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel. That company was renamed the Decca Gramophone Co. Ltd. Within years, Decca Records Ltd. was the second largest record label in the world, Decca bought the UK branch of Brunswick Records and continued to run it under that name. In the 1950s the American Decca studios were located in the Pythian Temple in New York City, in classical music, Decca had a long way to go from its modest beginnings to catch up with the established HMV and Columbia labels. The pre-war classical repertoire on Decca was not extensive, but was select, heinrich Schlusnus made important pre-war lieder recordings for Decca. John Culshaw, who joined Decca in 1946 in a junior post and he revolutionised recording – of opera, in particular. Hitherto, the practice had been to put microphones in front of the performers, Culshaw was determined to make recordings that would be a theatre of the mind, making the listeners experience at home not second best to being in the opera house, but a wholly different experience. To that end he got the singers to move about in the studio as they would onstage, used sound effects and different acoustics. His skill, coupled with Decca engineering, took Decca into the first flight of recording companies and his pioneering recording of Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen conducted by Georg Solti was a huge artistic and commercial success. In the wake of Deccas lead, artists such as Herbert von Karajan, Joan Sutherland, however, Culshaw was, strictly speaking, not the first to do this. Far from being a mere rendering of the score, the 3-LP album set used sound effects to recreate the production as if the listener were watching a stage performance of the work. Until 1947, American Decca issued British Decca classical music recordings, afterwards, British Decca took over distribution through its new American subsidiary London Records. American Decca actively re-entered the classical music field in 1950 with distribution deals from Deutsche Grammophon, American Decca began issuing its own classical music recordings in 1956 when Israel Horowitz joined Decca to head its classical music operations
32.
Sherrill Milnes
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Sherrill Milnes is an American operatic baritone most famous for his Verdi roles. From 1965 until 1997 he was associated with the Metropolitan Opera and his voice is a high dramatic baritone, combining good legato with an incisive rhythmic style. By 1965 he had made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera and his international debuts followed soon thereafter, and Milnes became one of the worlds prominent Verdi baritones of the 1970s and 1980s. Milnes was born in Downers Grove, Illinois and his mother and father were dairy farmers. As a child, he exhibited strong and varied musical talents, in addition to singing, he also played piano, violin, viola, double bass, clarinet, and tuba. Although his interests did not always lean toward opera, he spent many hours singing to his fathers cows and was found on a tractor practicing an operatic laugh. He attended North Central College before transferring to Drake University and Northwestern University, Milnes was awarded an honorary doctorate from North Central College in 2006. Milnes began his career with the Opera Company of Boston in 1960, joining Boris Goldovskys Opera Theater, from very early on in his career, Milnes was managed by well-known talent manager Herbert Barrett. In 1961, he made his debut at Ponselles Baltimore Opera as Gérard in Andrea Chénier. In 1964, Milnes made his first major breakthrough singing the role of Valentin in Gounods Faust at the New York City Opera, in 1967 he created the role of Captain Adam Brant in the world premiere of Marvin David Levys Mourning Becomes Electra at the Met. In 1964, Milnes also made his European debut singing Figaro from The Barber of Seville at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan, however, it was his performance as Miller in Verdis Luisa Miller in 1968 which catapulted him into international fame. In the early 1980s, Milnes experienced serious health problems. In 1984 he sang in the premiere of Act I of Sergei Rachmaninoffs opera Monna Vanna. Milnes was awarded Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternitys Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award at its 1982 national convention in Urbana and he had been initiated into the Fraternitys Alpha Beta chapter at Drake University in 1954. The orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta, performed in Central Park, in September 1996, Milnes was honored by the French government with the distinguished Chevalier de lOrdre des Arts et des Lettres. After 653 performances, he made his bow at the Met on March 22,1997 in Aida. In 1998, Milnes published a memoir, American Aria, Milnes is currently a professor emeritus in voice at Northwestern University. He is a recipient of Yale Universitys Sanford Medal and he is Artistic Advisor to Opera Tampa
33.
Leontyne Price
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Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in Laurel, Mississippi, she rose to acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s. Time magazine called her voice Rich, supple and shining, it was in its capable of effortlessly soaring from a smoky mezzo to the pure soprano gold of a perfectly spun high C. A lirico spinto soprano, she was considered well suited to the roles of Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini. After her retirement from the stage in 1985, she continued to appear in recitals. In October 2008, she was one of the recipients of the first Opera Honors given by the National Endowment for the Arts, Leontyne Price was born in Laurel, Mississippi. Her father James worked in a mill and her mother Katie was a midwife who sang in the church choir. They had waited 13 years for a child, and Leontyne became the focus of intense pride, given a toy piano at the age of three, she began piano lessons with a local teacher. When she was in kindergarten, her parents traded in the family phonograph as the payment on an upright piano. At 14, she was taken on a trip to hear Marian Anderson sing in Jackson. Meanwhile, she visited the home of Alexander and Elizabeth Chisholm. Mrs. Chisholm encouraged the early piano playing. During World War II, Price worked as a maid in the Chisholms household where she was allowed to play the piano. Mrs. Chisholm noticed her singing voice and accompanied her in several early recitals. Aiming for a career, Price enrolled in the music education program at the all-black Wilberforce College in Wilberforce. Her success in the club led to solo assignments. She sang in the choir with another singer, Betty Allen. With the help of the Chisholms and the famous bass Paul Robeson and she won a scholarship and was admitted to the studio of Florence Page Kimball, who would remain her principal teacher and advisor throughout the 1960s
34.
Erich Leinsdorf
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Erich Leinsdorf was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera throughout the United States and Europe. He also published books and essays on musical matters, Leinsdorf was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, and was studying music at a local school by the age of 5. He played the cello and studied composition, in his teens, Leinsdorf worked as a piano accompanist for singers. He studied conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and later at the University of Vienna, from 1934 to 1937 he worked as an assistant to the noted conductors Bruno Walter and Arturo Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival. In November 1937, Leinsdorf travelled to the United States to take up a position as assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. As it turned out, his departure from Austria came a few months ahead of the Anschluss of March 1938. With the assistance of freshman Representative from Texas Lyndon B, johnson, he was able to stay in the United States, and became a naturalized American citizen in 1942. While at the Met, Leinsdorf was particularly noted for his Wagner performances, after the death of Artur Bodanzky in 1939. Leinsdorf was the conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1947 to 1955. He came to despair of what he saw as Rochesters insular musical culture, subsequently, he was briefly head of the New York City Opera, before resuming his association with the Met. In 1962 he was named director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His time in Boston produced many recordings for RCA, but was marked by controversy, as he occasionally clashed with musicians. On November 22,1963, during a Boston Symphony concert and he and the orchestra followed the news with a performance of the Funeral March from Beethovens third symphony. In 1969 Leinsdorf left the Boston post and he would continue to guest-conduct operas and orchestras around the world for the next two decades, being particularly associated with the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. He also served from 1978 to 1980 as principal conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and he died of cancer in Zürich, Switzerland, at the age of 81. Leinsdorf is also known for his arrangements of orchestral concert suites of music from major operas and they include, Claude Debussys Pelléas et Mélisande, Richard Wagners Parsifal, and Richard Strausss Die Frau ohne Schatten. Leinsdorf made numerous recordings throughout his career, including some 78-rpm discs for Columbia Records with the Cleveland Orchestra and he made a number of recordings with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Capitol and later for Sheffield Labs
35.
Philharmonia Orchestra
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The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a music record producer for EMI. Since 1995, the orchestra has been based in the Royal Festival Hall, the Philharmonia also has residencies at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, the Corn Exchange, Bedford, and The Anvil, Basingstoke. Esa-Pekka Salonen has been the principal conductor and artistic advisor since 2008. Helen Sprott is the current managing director, The Philharmonia Orchestra performs more than 160 concerts a year and tours widely. The orchestra was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, as Legge was a recording producer for EMI, it was believed that the orchestra was primarily formed for recording purposes, but that was not Legges intention. After the war, opera resumed at Covent Garden under a different management and his contacts in the musical world during the war enabled him to secure the services of a large number of talented young musicians still serving in the armed forces in 1945. At the Philharmonias first concert on 25 October 1945, more than sixty per cent of the players were officially in the services. Beecham conducted the concert, but as he refused to be Legges employee and Legge refused to control of the orchestra. Herbert von Karajan was closely associated with the Philharmonia in its early years, at first, Legge was against appointing an official principal conductor, feeling that no one conductor should have more importance to the orchestra than Legge himself. But Karajan was principal conductor in all but name and he built the orchestra into one of the finest in the world and made numerous recordings, including all the Beethoven symphonies. In 1954, Karajan was elected director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Needing to find a new conductor for the orchestra, Legge turned to Otto Klemperer, klemperers name became closely linked with the orchestra during an Indian summer of celebrated recordings. In 1959, Klemperer was named director for life. On 10 March 1964, Legge announced that he was going to disband the Philharmonia Orchestra, at a recording session with Klemperer, a meeting was convened where those present unanimously agreed that they would not allow the orchestra to be disbanded. On 17 March 1964, the members of the orchestra elected their own governing body, the inaugural concert of the New Philharmonia under its own auspices took place on 27 October 1964. It was a performance of Beethovens Symphony No,9, conducted by Klemperer, who was now honorary president of the orchestra. From 1966 until 1972, the chairman of the orchestra was the principal flautist, the orchestra gave many more live performances after it became self-governing than it had under Legges management
36.
Ingvar Wixell
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Karl Gustaf Ingvar Wixell, was a Swedish baritone who had an active international career in operas and concerts from 1955 to 2003. Ingvar Wixell was born in Luleå in 1931 and he made his British debut during the Royal Swedish Operas visit to the Edinburgh International Festival in 1959. Wixell returned with this company to Covent Garden in 1960, and sang Guglielmo at Glyndebourne, for the Royal Opera, London he sang Boccanegra in 1972. In America he appeared at Chicago Lyric Opera and the Metropolitan Opera and he was engaged at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1967 where he was a member for more than 30 years. At Salzburg he sang a noted Pizarro at the Festival, where he appeared from 1966-69, Wixell performed all the songs in the competition to select Swedens Eurovision Song Contest 1965 entry. The winning song was Annorstädes Vals, which Wixell went on to perform at the final in Naples. In a break from the prevailing tradition, the song was sung in English. This led to the introduction from 1966 onwards of a rule stipulating that each countrys entry must be sung in one of the languages of that country, Wixell ended his career in 2003 by singing the Music teacher in Richard Strausss Ariadne auf Naxos at Malmö Opera. Wixell died in Malmö on October 8,2011, aged 80, with his wife, Margareta, Wixell had two daughters, Marit and Jette, all three survived him
37.
Renata Scotto
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Renata Scotto is an Italian soprano and opera director. She lives in Armonk, New York with her husband Lorenzo Anselmi, Renata Scotto was born in Savona, Italy. She made her debut in her home town on Christmas Eve of 1952 at the age of 18 in front of a sold-out house as Violetta in Verdis La traviata. The next day, she made her opera debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan as Violetta. Shortly after, she performed in her first Puccini opera, Madama Butterfly, both roles would later become closely associated with her name. In 1953, Scotto auditioned at La Scala for the role of Walter in Catalanis La Wally with Renata Tebaldi, after her audition, one of the judges, the conductor Victor de Sabata, was heard to say, Forget about the rest. La Wally opened on 7 December 1953 and Scotto was called back for fifteen curtain calls, Tebaldi and Del Monaco each received seven. Scottos major breakthrough came in 1957, At the Edinburgh Festival, the production was so successful that the company added an additional performance. Callas however declined to perform due to illness, saying that she had appeared in the other performances against her doctors orders. Scotto, covering the role of Amina, replaced Callas on 3 September 1957, the performance was a great success, and the 23-year-old Scotto became an international opera star. In 1961 she performed Amina again at Venices La Fenice with tenor Alfredo Kraus with whom she shared the same teacher, Mercedes Llopart, during the 1960s she became one of the leading singers in the belcanto revival initiated by Callas during the 1950s. She sang Bellinis Zaira and La straniera, plus Giulietta in Bellinis I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Donizettis Maria di Rohan, Meyerbeers Robert le Diable and other repertoire rarities. In 1964 she performed with La Scala at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and her American debut was as Mimì in La bohème at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1960, the same year she married violinist Lorenzo Anselmi. The couple has a daughter and a son, on 13 October 1965, Scotto made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly. She went on to sing more than 300 performances in 26 roles at the Met through 1987, with Luciano Pavarotti she opened the series of Live from the Met telecasts in 1977 with Puccinis La bohème. During the following years she starred in the telecasts of Manon Lescaut, Luisa Miller, Don Carlo, Il trittico, Francesca da Rimini and as Desdemona with Jon Vickers in Verdis Otello. She also sang regularly at the San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Dallas Opera, Royal Opera, London, Liceo, Barcelona, La Fenice, Venice, and Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires. In addition she appeared in Madrid, Genoa, Florence, Bologna, Trieste, Palermo, Roma, Berlin, Paris, Miami, Tokyo, Pittsburgh, in 1971, Scotto performed for a hostile audience for the first time in her career
38.
Lorin Maazel
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Lorin Varencove Maazel was an American conductor, violinist and composer. S. Maazel was well-regarded in baton technique and possessed a photographic memory for scores, described as mercurial and forbidding in rehearsal, he mellowed in old age. His father, Lincoln Maazel, was a singer, teacher of voice and piano, and an actor and his grandfather Isaac was a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for twenty years. Both Lincoln and Marie gave interviews for the Oral History Collection at the University of Pittsburgh, Lincolns in 1994, Maazel was a child prodigy, taking his first conducting lesson at age seven with Vladimir Bakaleinikov and making his debut at age eight. At the age of eleven, he guest-conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra on the radio, at twelve he toured the United States of America to conduct major orchestras. He made his debut at the age of fifteen. He attended the Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School at the University of Pittsburgh as a child, followed by Peabody High School, Maazel studied briefly with Pierre Monteux in 1945. In the early 1950s, Maazel toured as the conductor with the Gershwin Concert Orchestra, the orchestra consisted of 25 members and a noted array of soloists. The orchestra was organized in cooperation with Ira Gershwin, to give the public a comprehensive Gershwin program, the list of soloists included George Gershwins friend, Jesús Maria Sanromá, Carolyn Long and Theodor Uppman. In 1960, Maazel became the first American to conduct at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus and he was chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1965 to 1971 and the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 1964 to 1975. In 1972, Maazel began his tenure as director at the Cleveland Orchestra. Maazels emotional, rich interpretation of music greatly differed from Szells characteristic crisp, a notable achievement during this time was the first complete recording of George Gershwins Porgy and Bess, using an all-African American cast. Maazel held the post until 1982 and he never returned to the Cleveland Orchestra after his departure, although a scheduled engagement in 2006 did not occur because of illness. In 1977, he became director of the Orchestre National de France in Paris. From 1982 to 1984, Maazel served at the Vienna State Opera as general manager, in 1980, he succeeded Willi Boskovsky as conductor at the Vienna New Years Concert and he led this televised annual event each year, until 1986. He returned to it four times, in 1994,1996,1999 and 2005, from 1984 to 1988, Maazel was the music consultant to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and its music director from 1988 to 1996. From 1993 until 2002, he was conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich. He claimed that his decision was because he was concerned for the orchestras well-being and this engagement led to his appointment in January 2001 as the orchestras next music director, starting in 2002, succeeding Kurt Masur
39.
Sony Classical Records
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Sony Classical Records is an American record label. It was started in 1927 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of the American Columbia Records, in 1948, it issued the first commercially successful long-playing 12 record. Over the next decades its artists included Isaac Stern, Pablo Casals, Glenn Gould, Eugene Ormandy, Vangelis, Elliot Goldenthal, Leonard Bernstein, parent CBS also featured the Masterworks name on its consumer electronics equipment. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed CBS Masterworks Records, the Sony Classical label is listed today as a sister label of Masterworks
40.
Vasile Moldoveanu
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Vasile Moldoveanu is a Romanian tenor. Moldoveanu studied voice at the Ciprian Porumbescu University of Music in Bucharest under the supervision of the tenor Dinu Bădescu and his debut was at the Romanian Opera in Bucharest on 9 January 1966, he played Arlecchino in Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. His career in Romania was relatively short, he performed at the Romanian Opera for seven seasons between 1966 and 1971. He sang in 22 operas, mainly in secondary roles, but also in main roles such as Rinuccio, Rodolfo, Il Duca di Mantova, Ernesto and he also appeared in secondary roles on the first opera LPs from Electrecord. In 1971 he was invited by the Viktor Vladarski and Friedrich Pasch agencies to a series of auditions in Germany. After initial difficulties in obtaining a visa because he was not a member of the Romanian Communist Party, he arrived in Germany in 1972 and decided not to return to Romania. After the relevant penal code was modified in 1973, the case was again in his absence. In 1972, Moldoveanu made his first international appearance as Manrico in Il trovatore at the Regensburg Opera, then, in Amsterdam, he was Rodolfo, followed by Il Duca di Mantova at the St. Gallen Opera. His debut at the Vienna State Opera was Alfredo in 1973, in 1973, he also appeared for the first time as Don Carlos in Verdis homonymous opera, a role he would sing more than 75 times during his career. In 1974 he signed a four-year-contract with the Stuttgart Opera, managed at that time by Wolfgang Windgassen and he sang in numerous productions there, including Lucia di Lammermoor, La bohème, Un ballo in maschera and La traviata. In 1976 he was cast in Rigoletto, directed by Roman Polanski, in 1979, he made his debut at Covent Garden, London, in Don Carlos, directed by Luchino Visconti. In 1977, Moldoveanu was named Kammersänger by the Stuttgart Opera and his first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera took place on 19 May 1977, during a tour of the company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He appeared as Rodolfo in La bohème, with Mimi played by Renata Scotto, at the Metropolitan, he sang in 105 performances, more than any other Romanian tenor, he is also the Romanian opera singer with the most presences in a main role after World War II. By way of comparison, during the years that Moldoveanu sang at the Met, Luciano Pavarotti had 100 appearances. He sang ten parts at the Metropolitan Opera, and was broadcast live on TV in Don Carlo, Il tabarro and Simon Boccanegra. He reduced his activity in 1987, following a complicated surgery, Moldoveanu returned to Europe and continued his career in Paris, Monaco, Nice, Roma, Lisbon, Parma, Pretoria, South Africa, and German cities including Stuttgart and Hamburg. Perhaps the only important opera house where he did not sing was Teatro alla Scala, Milano, moldoveanu’s voice had a vibrant timbre, consistent with the characteristics of the lyric tenor that he considered himself. However, he had a steady and strong acute register, which allowed him to successfully approach roles more typically associated with spinto tenors, as well as dramatic roles
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James Levine
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James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is primarily known for his tenure as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera and he has made numerous recordings, as well as television and radio broadcasts, with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Levine has also held positions with the Ravinia Festival, the Munich Philharmonic. In 1980, he started the Lindemann Young Artists Development Program and often works to train promising singers, conductors, after suffering severe health problems, Levine took a hiatus from conducting for almost two years. He returned to conducting in 2013 and he stepped down as the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera at the end of the 2015-2016 season to assume the new position of Music Director Emeritus. James Levine was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a family, his maternal grandfather was a cantor in a synagogue, his father was a violinist who led a dance band. He began to play the piano as a small child, at the age of 10, he made his concert debut as soloist in Felix Mendelssohns Piano Concerto No.2 at a youth concert of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Levine subsequently studied music with Walter Levin, first violinist in the LaSalle Quartet, in 1956 he took piano lessons with Rudolf Serkin at the Marlboro Music School, Vermont. In the following year he began studies with Rosina Lhévinne at the Aspen Music School and he graduated from the Juilliard School in 1964 and joined the American Conductors project connected with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. From 1964 to 1965, Levine served as an apprentice to George Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra and that year, he also made debuts as guest conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra at its summer home at Robin Hood Dell, the Welsh National Opera, and the San Francisco Opera. This concert began an association with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1990, at the request of Roy E. Disney, he arranged the music and conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the soundtrack of Fantasia 2000, from 1974 to 1978, Levine served as music director of the Cincinnati May Festival. Levine made his Metropolitan Opera debut in June 1971, leading a June Festival performance of Tosca, following further appearances with the company, he was named principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in February 1972. He became the Mets music director in 1976, in 1983, he served as conductor and musical director for the Franco Zeffirelli screen adaptation of La Traviata, which featured the Met orchestra and chorus members. He became the companys first artistic director in 1986, and relinquished the title in 2004, Levine has led the Metropolitan Opera on many domestic and international tours. For the 25th anniversary of his Met debut, Levine conducted the premiere of John Harbisons The Great Gatsby. On his appointment as General Manager of the Met, Peter Gelb emphasized that James Levine was welcome to remain as long as he wanted to direct music there. Following a series of injuries that began with a fall in Boston, following a May 2011 performance of Die Walküre, Levine formally withdrew from all conducting engagements at the Metropolitan Opera
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Juan Pons
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Joan Pons Álvarez, is a Spanish operatic baritone, known internationally as Juan Pons. Pons made his international début in 1980 at the Teatro alla Scala of Milan with Falstaff, staged by Giorgio Strehler and his repertoire includes all the main baritone roles. He has performed in Leoncavallos Pagliacci, Mascagnis Cavalleria rusticana and Puccinis Tosca, Gianni Schicchi, Il tabarro, La fanciulla del West, besides the mainstream repertoire, Juan Pons has also sung less well-known works such as Aroldo, Hérodiade, Roberto Devereux and Respighis La fiamma. As of 2011, Juan Pons has sung 337 performances at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. In the 1997-98 season he was in a production of Sly by Wolf-Ferrari alongside José Carreras, as well as in Giordanos La Cena delle Beffe, furthermore, he sang Aida at the Teatro Real of Madrid. In 2002 he appeared in Sly and Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera House, in Madama Butterfly in Tokyo under the baton of Myung-whun Chung, in 2005 he recorded Puccinis Edgar with Plácido Domingo with Deutsche Grammophon. Antoni Pizà, Bartomeu Amengual, Luciano Pavarotti, Bravo Joan Pons ISBN 84-95694-23-9 Official webpage Video of Juan Pons in I Pagliacci
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