1.
The Bohemian Girl
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The Bohemian Girl is a ballad opera composed by Michael William Balfe with a libretto by Alfred Bunn. The plot is based on a Cervantes tale, La Gitanilla. The best-known aria from the piece is I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls in which the character, Arline. It has been recorded by artists, most famously by Dame Joan Sutherland. The opera was first produced in London at the Drury Lane Theatre on 27 November 1843, the production ran for more than 100 nights and enjoyed many revivals worldwide including, New York City, Dublin and Philadelphia. Several versions in different languages were also staged during Balfe’s lifetime, the opera remained in the repertories of British touring companies until the 1930s and was revived in 1932 at Sadlers Wells. A Polish noble, Thaddeus, in exile in Austria, joins a band of gypsies and he saves Arline, the infant daughter of Count Arnheim, from being killed by a deer. Arline can only remember her noble upbringing. She and Thaddeus are sweethearts, but the Gypsy Queen is also in love with him, arnheims nephew Florestein falls in love with Arline, but the Queen plants a medallion stolen from Florestein on Arline. Florestein recognises the medallion and has her arrested and she is tried before the Count who recognises the scar left on her arm from the deer attack. Arline is at a ball in her fathers castle, where she feels nostalgic for her Romany upbringing, Thaddeus breaks into the castle through a window and pleads for her hand. He eventually wins the trust of the count whom he insulted twelve years ago, the Gypsy Queen stalks Thaddeus to the castle and tries to break in through the same window to kill Arline with a musket and kidnap Thaddeus. Before she can execute her plan, however, Devilshoof tries to wrest the weapon from her hands, a silent movie version was made in Britain in 1922. Ellen Terry, much known as a stage actress, made her last screen appearance as Buda the nursemaid. Ivor Novello plays Thaddeus, Gladys Cooper plays Arline, and C, an early sound short subject version of the opera was filmed in Britain in 1927, starring Pauline Johnson as Arline and Herbert Langley as Thaddeus. The best-known version is undoubtedly the 1936 full-length Laurel and Hardy film, the characters played by Laurel and Hardy do not appear in the stage opera, nor does Thaddeus appear in the film. La gitanilla itself has been filmed three times, but never in English, the Bohemian Girl is mentioned in the short stories Clay and Eveline by James Joyce which are both parts of Dubliners. In Clay, the character Maria sings some lines from I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls, the aria is quoted again in Joyces novel Finnegans Wake
2.
Her Majesty's Theatre
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Her Majestys Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, M. Synge, Noël Coward and J. B. Since the First World War, the stage has made the theatre suitable for large-scale musical productions. The theatre was established by architect and playwright John Vanbrugh, in 1705, legitimate drama unaccompanied by music was prohibited by law in all but the two London patent theatres, and so this theatre quickly became an opera house. Between 1711 and 1739, more than 25 operas by George Frideric Handel premiered here and it also hosted the Ballet of her Majestys Theatre in the mid-19th century, before returning to hosting the London premieres of such operas as Bizets Carmen and Wagners Ring Cycle. The name of the changes with the sex of the monarch. It first became the Kings Theatre in 1714 on the accession of George I and it was renamed Her Majestys Theatre in 1837. Most recently, the theatre was known as His Majestys Theatre from 1901 to 1952, the theatres capacity is 1,216 seats, and the building was Grade II* listed by English Heritage in 1970. Really Useful Theatres has owned the building since 2000, the land beneath it is on a long-term lease from the Crown Estate. In the new business, he hoped to improve the share of profits that would go to playwrights, —John Vanbrughs notice of subscription for the new theatre He was joined in the enterprise by his principal associate and manager William Congreve and an actors co-operative led by Thomas Betterton. The theatre provided the first alternative to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, built in 1663, the theatres site is the second oldest such site in London that remains in use. These three post-interregnum theatres defined the shape and use of modern theatres, the land for the theatre was held on a lease renewable in 1740 and was ultimately owned, as it is today, by the Crown Estate. Building was delayed by the necessity of acquiring the street frontage, colley Cibber described the audience fittings as lavish but the facilities for playing poor. This was the first Italian opera performed in London, the opera failed, and the season struggled on through May, with revivals of plays and operas. The first new play performed was The Conquest of Spain by Mary Pix, the theatre proved too large for actors voices to carry across the auditorium, and the first season was a failure. Congreve departed, Vanbrugh bought out his partners, and the actors reopened the Lincolns Inn Fields theatre in the summer. On 7 May 1707, experiencing mounting losses and running costs, after 1709, the theatre was devoted to Italian opera and was sometimes known informally as the Haymarket Opera House. Young George Frideric Handel produced his English début, Rinaldo, on 24 February 1711 at the theatre and this was the first Italian opera composed specifically for the London stage
3.
Dublin
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Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay, the Dubhlinn was a small lake used to moor ships, the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew, the Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle
4.
Wexford
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Wexford is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 National Primary Route, and it has a population of 19,913 according to the 2011 census. The town was founded by the Vikings in about 800 AD and they named it Veisafjǫrðr, meaning inlet of the mud flats, and the name has changed only slightly into its present form. Veisa in modern Norwegian means Way, so Veisafjǫrðr could have meant inlet of the way or Way Fjord. The resulting loch was thus named Loch Garman, for about three hundred years it was a Viking town, a city state, largely independent and owing only token dues to the Irish kings of Leinster. However, in May 1169 Wexford was besieged by Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster and his Norman ally, the Norse inhabitants resisted fiercely, until the Bishop of Ferns persuaded them to accept a settlement with Dermot. Wexford was an Old English settlement in the Middle Ages, an old dialect of English, known as Yola, was spoken uniquely in Wexford up until the 19th century. The Yola name for Wexford was Weiseforthe, following the Crusades, the Knights Templar had a presence in Wexford. Up to the present, their name is perpetuated in the old Knights Templars chapel yard of St. Johns Cemetery, County Wexford produced strong support for Confederate Ireland during the 1640s. A fleet of Confederate privateers was based in Wexford town, consisting of sailors from Flanders and their vessels raided English Parliamentarian shipping, giving some of the proceeds to the Confederate government in Kilkenny. As a result, the town was sacked by the English Parliamentarians during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649, many of its inhabitants were killed and much of the town was burned. In 1659 Solomon Richards was appointed Governor, but he was dismissed and imprisoned following the Restoration the next year, County Wexford was the centre of the 1798 rebellion against British rule. Redmond Square, near the station, commemorates the elder John Edward Redmond who was Liberal MP for the city of Wexford. The inscription reads, My heart is with the city of Wexford, nothing can extinguish that love but the cold soil of the grave. His nephew William Archer Redmond sat as an MP in Isaac Butts Home Rule Party from 1872 until 1880, Willie Redmond sat as an MP for Wexford from 1883 until 1885. The younger John Redmond, was a follower of Charles Stewart Parnell. He is interred in the Redmond family vault, at the old Knights Templars chapel yard of St. Johns Cemetery, Upper St. Johns Street
5.
Polonaise
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The polonaise is a dance of Polish origin, in 34 time. Its name is French for Polish, the polonaise had a rhythm quite close to that of the Swedish semiquaver or sixteenth-note polska, and the two dances have a common origin. Polonaise is a dance in carnival parties. Polonaise is always a first dance at a studniówka, the Polish equivalent of the prom that occurs approximately 100 days before exams. The notation alla polacca on a score indicates that the piece should be played with the rhythm. For example, the movement of Beethovens Triple Concerto op. 56, marked Rondo alla polacca, and the finale of Chopins Variations on Là ci darem la mano both feature this notation, frédéric Chopins polonaises are generally the best known of all polonaises in classical music. Another more recent prolific polonaise composer was the American Edward Alexander MacDowell, john Philip Sousa wrote the Presidential Polonaise, intended to keep visitors moving briskly through the White House receiving line. Sousa wrote it in 1886 at the request of President Chester A. Arthur who died before it was performed, Polonaise is a Polish dance and is one of the five historic national dances of Poland. The others are the Mazurka, Kujawiak, Krakowiak and Oberek, Polonaise originated as a peasant dance known under various names – chodzony, chmielowy, pieszy or wielki, recorded as early as the 15th century. In later centuries it gained popularity among the nobility and townspeople, waltz Mazurka Varsovienne Redowa Polonaise ‒ The Royal Dance Every Polish Teenager Has to Master
6.
Ballad
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A ballad /ˈbæləd/ is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally danced songs, Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of the British Isles from the later medieval period until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in the Americas, Australia, Ballads are 13 lines with an ABABBCBC form, consisting of couplets of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides, the form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century, the took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and is now often used for any love song. The ballad derives its name from medieval French dance songs or ballares, from which ballet is also derived, as a narrative song, their theme and function may originate from Scandinavian and Germanic traditions of storytelling that can be seen in poems such as Beowulf. Musically they were influenced by the Minnesinger, the earliest example of a recognizable ballad in form in England is Judas in a 13th-century manuscript. This means that the two words, ballad and ballet, are derived from the French language. Ballads were originally written to accompany dances, and so were composed in couplets with refrains in alternate lines and these refrains would have been sung by the dancers in time with the dance. Most northern and west European ballads are written in ballad stanzas or quatrains of alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, known as ballad meter. Usually, only the second and fourth line of a quatrain are rhymed, there is considerable variation on this pattern in almost every respect, including length, number of lines and rhyming scheme, making the strict definition of a ballad extremely difficult. Ballads usually use the dialect of the people and are heavily influenced by the region in which they originate. Scottish ballads in particular are distinctively un-English, even showing some pre-Christian influences in the inclusion of elements such as the fairies in the Scottish ballad Tam Lin. The ballads do not have any known author or correct version, instead, having passed down mainly by oral tradition since the Middle Ages. The ballads remained a tradition until the increased interest in folk songs in the 18th century led collectors such as Bishop Thomas Percy to publish volumes of popular ballads. In all traditions most ballads are narrative in nature, with a story, often concise, and rely on imagery, rather than description. Themes concerning rural laborers and their sexuality are common, and there are many ballads based on the Robin Hood legend. Another common feature of ballads is repetition, sometimes of fourth lines in succeeding stanzas, as a refrain, sometimes of third and fourth lines of a stanza and sometimes of entire stanzas
7.
Lucia Elizabeth Vestris
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Lucia Elizabeth Vestris was an English actress and a contralto opera singer, appearing in works by Mozart and Rossini. While popular in her time, she was notable as a theatre producer and manager. She also produced his work at other theatres she managed and she was born Elizabetta Lucia Bartolozzi in London in 1797, the first of two daughters of German pianist Theresa Jansen Bartolozzi and art dealer Gaetano Stefano Bartolozzi. He was a musician and son of the immigrant Francesco Bartolozzi, Gaetano Bartolozzi was a successful art dealer, and the family moved to Europe in 1798 when he sold off his business. They spent time in Paris and Vienna before reaching Venice where they found that their estate had been looted during the French invasion and they returned to London to start over and Gaetano taught drawing. The couple separated in London and Therese gave piano lessons to support her daughters, Lucia studied music and was noted for her voice and dancing ability. She was married at age 16 to the French dancer, Auguste Armand Vestris, a scion of the family of dancers of Florentine origin. Nevertheless, since she had started singing and acting professionally as Madame Vestris and she also sang in 1816 in Martín y Solers Una cosa rara and performed the roles of Dorabella and Susanna in Mozarts operas Così fan tutte, and The Marriage of Figaro. She had immediate success in both London and Paris, in the French capital city she occasionally appeared at the Théâtre-Italien and various other theatres. A legend that she performed as an actress at the Théâtre-Français playing Camille opposite François-Joseph Talma in Corneilles Horace has however turned out to be untrue. Finally, the legend has been refuted by modern biographers of Madame Vestris, from then on she remained an extraordinary favourite in opera, musical farces, and comedies until her retirement in 1854. She was credited with popularizing such new songs as Cherry Ripe, Meet Me by Moonlight Alone, Ive been roaming, in 1830, having accumulated a fortune from performing, she leased the Olympic Theatre from John Scott. There she began presenting a series of burlesques and extravaganzas—for which she made this house famous and she produced numerous works by the contemporary playwright James Planché, with whom she had a successful partnership, which included him contributing ideas for staging and costumes. She married in 1838 for the time, to the British actor Charles James Mathews. They cooperated in their subsequent managerial ventures, including the management of the Lyceum Theatre, mme Vestris and Mathews inaugurated their management of Covent Garden with the first-known production of Loves Labours Lost since 1605, Vestris played Rosaline. In 1840 she staged one of the first relatively uncut productions of A Midsummer Nights Dream and this began a tradition of female Oberons that lasted in the British theatre for seventy years. In 1841 Vestris produced the highly successful Victorian farce London Assurance by Dion Boucicault, the play has been popular ever since, receiving its most recent revival at the National Theatre in 2010. She also introduced the soprano Adelaide Kemble to the theatre in Bellini’s Norma, a daughter of John Kemble, actor-manager, and one of the theatre’s owners, and niece of Sarah Siddons, Adelaide had a sensational but short career before retiring into marriage
8.
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
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The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, a West End theatre, is a Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane, the building is the most recent in a line of four theatres which were built at the same location, the earliest of which dated back to 1663, making it the oldest theatre site in London still in use. According to the author Peter Thomson, for its first two centuries, Drury Lane could reasonably have claimed to be Londons leading theatre. For most of time, it was one of a handful of patent theatres. The first theatre on the site was built at the behest of Thomas Killigrew in the early 1660s, when theatres were allowed to reopen during the English Restoration. Initially known as Theatre Royal in Bridges Street, the proprietors hired a number of prominent actors who performed at the theatre on a regular basis, including Nell Gwyn. In 1672 the theatre caught fire and Killigrew built a theatre on the same plot, renamed the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. This building lasted nearly 120 years, under the leaderships of Colley Cibber, David Garrick and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, in 1791, under Sheridans management, the building was demolished to make way for a larger theatre which opened in 1794. This new Drury Lane survived for 15 years before burning down in 1809, the building that stands today opened in 1812. It has been the residency of a number of known actors including, Edmund Kean, comedian Dan Leno. From the Second World War, the theatre has primarily hosted long runs of musicals and my Fair Lady, 42nd Street and Miss Saigon, the theatres longest-running show. The theatre is owned by the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, soon after, Charles issued Letters Patent to two parties licensing the formation of new acting companies. One of these went to Thomas Killigrew, whose company became known as the Kings Company, the new playhouse, architect unknown, opened on 7 May 1663 and was known from the placement of the entrance as the Theatre Royal in Bridges Street. It went by names as well, including the Kings Playhouse. The building was a wooden structure,112 feet long and 59 feet wide. Set well back from the streets, the theatre was accessed by narrow passages between surrounding buildings. The King himself frequently attended the productions, as did Samuel Pepys. The day after the Theatre Royal opened, Pepys attended a performance of Francis Beaumont, performances usually began at 3 pm to take advantage of the daylight, the main floor for the audience, the pit, had no roof in order to let in the light
9.
Charles Edward Horn
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Charles Edward Horn was an English composer and singer. He was born in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, to Charles Frederick Horn and his wife and he was the eldest of their seven children. His father taught him music, he took music lessons briefly in 1808 from singer Venanzio Rauzzini in Bath. Horn made his debut on 26 June 1809 with a performance in the comic opera Up All Night, or the Smugglers Cave at Lyceum Theatre. Horn continued singing, including a turn in 1814 as Seraskier in Stephen Storaces The Siege of Belgrade. He achieved prominence with his portrayal of Caspar in the English version of Carl Maria von Webers Der Freischütz in 1824, Horn began composing music soon after his stage debut, writing glees and operas. He helped compose music for Thomas Moores comic opera M. P. or the Blue Stocking, the latter became a subject of controversy after Thomas Attwood accused him of plagiarizing the song. Horn was acquitted in court, however, according to one account, he helped his case by personally singing his version, in 1827, Horn sailed to New York City, where he made a successful American debut. In addition to giving singing performances, he staged works by Storace, Weber, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Gioachino Rossini. He briefly returned to London for a few years, overseeing the debut of his Honest Frauds and serving as director of the Olympic Theatre from 1831 to 1832. There, he became the director of Park Theatre, producing and directing performances of his own works. His oratorio The Remission of Sin may be the first oratorio composed in the United States, after losing his voice due to illness in 1835, he started giving singing lessons. Two years later, he entered into a partnership and opened a music store on Broadway. In 1842, he helped found the New York Philharmonic Society, after visiting England for a few years in the 1840s, he returned to the United States in 1847, settling in Boston. There, he was elected director of the Handel and Haydn Society and he married twice, first to a Miss Rae, and in 1838 to Maria Horton and had one son, Charles, who became a tenor. Horn, Charles Edward, Charles Edward Horns Memoirs of his Father and Himself, free scores by Charles Edward Horn in the Choral Public Domain Library
10.
Charles Frederick Horn
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Charles Frederick Horn was an English musician and composer. Born in Germany, he emigrated to London with few possessions and no knowledge of the English language, as an editor and arranger, he helped introduce the music of Johann Sebastian Bach to England. Born in Nordhausen, Germany to John Wolfgang Horn and Sophia Dorothea Shenaman, according to the memoirs of Charles Fredericks son, Charles Edward Horn, John Wolfgang wished for his son to become a surveyor. Horn would often furtively practice music instead, when his father found out and this, though, did not dissuade Horn from taking music lessons from Nordhausen organist Christoph Gottlieb Schröter. On Schröters death in 1782, Horn decided to move to Paris to try a living as a musician and he left his home with little money and a suitcase of clothes. Winkelman accompanied him to London, but upon arriving, stole almost all of Horns money, destitute and knowing no English, he wandered the streets of London before encountering a German-speaking Irishman, who sympathised with his plight. The man took Horn to the shop of Longman and Broderip at Cheapside. The appointment meant that Trentham Hall, Leveson-Gowers estate in Staffordshire, there, he met and fell in love with Diana Dupont, the French tutor of Leveson-Gowers daughters. The two married on 28 September 1785, and subsequently moved to London, where Dupont gave birth to the couples first child, Charles Edward Horn, Horn published his first composition, Six Sonatas for the Piano, Violin, and Violoncello, earlier that year in May. Subscribers to the work included such luminaries as Muzio Clementi, Johann Peter Salomon, George IV, the latter introduced Horn to Queen Charlotte, who appointed him as her personal music tutor, he instructed the Queen twice a week from 20 October 1789 to 9 October 1793. While in her service, he maintained two homes, one in London and the other in Windsor and he was also engaged from June 1789 to October 1812 to teach music to the royal princesses. During his employment in the household, he composed a set of three Sonatas, which he dedicated to the Queen. Horn continued composing numerous pieces, but he is perhaps best known for his work in arranging and editing music—in particular, in 1807, he published an arrangement for two violins, viola, and cello/piano for 12 of Bachs organ fugues. Horn, whom Wesley described as indefatigable, had plans to all of Bachs works. In June 1824, King George IV appointed Horn as organist of St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle and he stepped down after King Georges death on 26 June 1830, and died shortly after in Windsor. He was buried at St Georges Chapel, Horn was survived by his wife, with whom he had seven children. Charles Edward Horns memoirs of his father and himself
11.
St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
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St Georges Chapel is the place of worship at Windsor Castle in England, United Kingdom. It is both a royal peculiar and the chapel of the Order of the Garter, the chapel is governed by the Dean and Canons of Windsor. The chapel is located in the Lower Ward of the castle, the Society of the Friends of St Georges and Descendants of the Knights of the Garter, a registered charity, was established in 1931 to assist the College in maintaining the chapel. In 1348, King Edward III founded two new colleges, St Stephens at Westminster and St Georges at Windsor. The new college at Windsor was attached to the Chapel of St Edward the Confessor which had constructed by Henry III in the early thirteenth century. The chapel was rededicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Edward the Confessor. Edward III also built the Aerary Porch in 1353–1354 and it was used as the entrance to the new college. St Georges Chapel became the Mother Church of the Order of the Garter, and their heraldic banners hang above the upper stalls of the choir where they have a seat for life. The period 1475–1528 saw a redevelopment of St Georges Chapel, set in motion by Edward IV and continued by Henry VII. The Horseshoe Cloister was constructed for the new community of 45 junior members,16 vicars, St Georges Chapel was a popular destination for pilgrims during the late medieval period. The chapel was purported to contain several important relics, the bodies of John Schorne and Henry VI of England and these relics all appear to have been displayed at the east end of the south choir aisle. The Chapel suffered a great deal of destruction during the English Civil War, parliamentary forces broke into and plundered the chapel and treasury on 23 October 1642. Further pillaging occurred in 1643 when the chapter house was destroyed, lead was stripped off the chapel roofs. Following his execution in 1649, Charles I was buried in a vault in the centre of the choir at St Georges Chapel which also contained the coffins of Henry VIII. A programme of repair was undertaken at St Georges Chapel following the Restoration of the monarchy, the reign of Queen Victoria saw further changes made to the architecture of the chapel. On the roof of the chapel, standing on the pinnacles, the original beasts dated from the sixteenth century, but were removed in 1682 on the advice of Sir Christopher Wren, the present statues date from 1925, when the chapel was restored. Members of the meet at Windsor Castle every June for the annual Garter Service. After lunch in the State Apartments in the Upper Ward of the Castle they process on foot, wearing their robes and insignia, if any new members have been admitted to the Order they are installed at the service
12.
Norwich
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Norwich is a city on the River Wensum in East Anglia and lies about 100 miles north-east of London. It is the administrative centre for East Anglia and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London and it remained the capital of the most populous English county until the Industrial Revolution. The urban area of Norwich had a population of 213,166 according to the 2011 Census, the parliamentary seats cross over into adjacent local-government districts. A total of 132,512 people live in the City of Norwich, Norwich is the fourth most densely populated local-government district in the East of England, with 3,480 people per square kilometre. In May 2012, Norwich was designated Englands first UNESCO City of Literature, the capital of the Iceni tribe was a settlement located near to the village of Caistor St. Edmund on the River Tas approximately 8 kilometres to the south of modern-day Norwich. Following an uprising led by Boudica around AD60 the Caistor area became the Roman capital of East Anglia named Venta Icenorum, literally the market place of the Iceni. According to a rhyme, the demise of Venta Icenorum led to the development of Norwich, Caistor was a city when Norwich was none. There are two suggested models of development for Norwich, the ancient city was a thriving centre for trade and commerce in East Anglia in 1004 AD when it was raided and burnt by Swein Forkbeard the Viking king of Denmark. Mercian coins and shards of pottery from the Rhineland dating from the 8th century suggest that trade was happening long before this. Between 924 and 939, Norwich became fully established as a town, the word Norvic appears on coins across Europe minted during this period, in the reign of King Athelstan. The Vikings were a cultural influence in Norwich for 40–50 years at the end of the 9th century. At the time of the Norman Conquest the city was one of the largest in England, the Domesday Book states that it had approximately 25 churches and a population of between 5, 000–10,000. It also records the site of an Anglo-Saxon church in Tombland, the site of the Saxon market place and the later Norman cathedral. Norwich continued to be a centre for trade, the River Wensum being a convenient export route to the River Yare and Great Yarmouth. Quern stones and other artefacts from Scandinavia and the Rhineland have been found during excavations in Norwich city centre and these date from the 11th century onwards. Norwich Castle was founded soon after the Norman Conquest, the Domesday Book records that 98 Saxon homes were demolished to make way for the castle. In 1096, Herbert de Losinga, Bishop of Thetford, began construction of Norwich Cathedral, the chief building material for the Cathedral was limestone, imported from Caen in Normandy
13.
Carl Maria von Weber
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Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school. Webers operas Der Freischütz, Euryanthe and Oberon greatly influenced the development of the Romantische Oper in Germany, a brilliant pianist himself, Weber composed four sonatas, two concertos and the Konzertstück in F minor, which influenced composers such as Chopin, Liszt and Mendelssohn. The Konzertstück provided a new model for the one-movement concerto in several contrasting sections, Webers shorter piano pieces, such as the Invitation to the Dance, were later orchestrated by Berlioz, while his Polacca Brillante was later set for piano and orchestra by Liszt. Webers compositions for clarinet, bassoon, and horn occupy an important place in the musical repertoire. His compositions for the clarinet, which include two concertos, a concertino, a quintet, a duo concertante, and variations on a theme from his opera Silvana, are performed today. His Concertino for Horn and Orchestra requires the performer to simultaneously produce two notes by humming while playing—a technique known as multiphonics and his bassoon concerto and the Andante e Rondo ungarese are also popular with bassoonists. Webers contribution to vocal and choral music is also significant and his body of Catholic religious music was highly popular in 19th-century Germany, and he composed one of the earliest song cycles, Die Temperamente beim Verluste der Geliebten. Weber was also notable as one of the first conductors to conduct without a piano or violin and his operas influenced the work of later opera composers, especially in Germany, such as Marschner, Meyerbeer and Wagner, as well as several nationalist 19th-century composers such as Glinka. Homage has been paid to Weber by 20th-century composers such as Debussy, Stravinsky, Mahler, Weber also wrote music journalism and was interested in folksong, and learned lithography to engrave his own works. Weber was born in Eutin, Bishopric of Lübeck, the eldest of the three children of Franz Anton von Weber and his wife, Genovefa Weber, a Viennese singer. The von was an affectation, Franz Anton von Weber was not actually an aristocrat, both his parents were Catholic and originally came from the far south of Germany. Franz Anton began his career as a officer in the service of the Duchy of Holstein. In 1787 Franz Anton went on to Hamburg where he founded a theatrical company, Franz Antons half-brother, Fridolin, married Cäcilia Stamm and had four musical daughters, Josepha, Aloysia, Constanze and Sophie, all of whom became notable singers. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart attempted to woo Aloysia, composing pieces for her. But after she rejected his advances, Mozart went on to marry Constanze, a gifted violinist, Franz Anton had ambitions of turning Carl into a child prodigy like Franzs nephew-by-marriage, Mozart. Carl was born with a hip disease and did not begin to walk until he was four. But by then, he was already a singer and pianist. Webers father gave him an education, which was however interrupted by the familys constant moves
14.
Luigi Cherubini
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Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music, Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries. Cherubini was born Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini in Florence in 1760, there is uncertainty about his exact date of birth. Although 14 September is sometimes stated, evidence from baptismal records, perhaps the strongest evidence is his first name, Maria, which is traditional for a child born on 8 September, feast-day of the Nativity of the Virgin. His instruction in music began at the age of six with his father, Bartolomeo, considered a child prodigy, Cherubini studied counterpoint and dramatic style at an early age. By the time he was thirteen, he had composed several religious works, in 1780, he was awarded a scholarship by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to study music in Bologna and Milan. Cherubinis early opera serie used libretti by Apostolo Zeno, Metastasio and his music was strongly influenced by Niccolò Jommelli, Tommaso Traetta, and Antonio Sacchini, who were the leading composers of the day. The first of his two works, Lo sposo di tre e marito di nessuna, premiered at a Venetian theater in November 1783. Feeling constrained by Italian traditions and eager to experiment, Cherubini traveled to London in 1785 where he produced two opere serie and an opera buffa for the Kings Theatre. In the same year, he made an excursion to Paris with his friend the violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti, Cherubini received an important commission to write Démophoon to a French libretto by Jean-François Marmontel that would be his first tragédie en musique. Performances of Démophon were favorably received at the Grand Opéra in 1788, with Viottis help, the Théâtre de Monsieur in the Tuileries appointed Cherubini as its director in 1789. Three years later, after a move to the rue Feydeau and the fall of the monarchy and this position gave Cherubini the opportunity to read countless libretti and choose one that best suited his temperament. Cherubinis music began to show more originality and daring and his first major success was Lodoïska, which was admired for its realistic heroism. This was followed by Elisa, set in the Swiss Alps, Les deux journées, in which Cherubini simplified his style, was a popular success. These and other operas were premièred at the Théâtre Feydeau or the Opéra-Comique, feeling financially secure, he married Anne Cécile Tourette in 1794 and began a family of three children. The fallout from the French Revolution affected Cherubini until the end of his life, politics forced him to hide his connections with the former aristocracy and seek governmental appointments. Although Napoléon found him too complex, Cherubini wrote at least one work per year for more than a decade. He was appointed Napoléons director of music in Vienna for part of 1805 and 1806, in 1808 Cherubini was elected an associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands
15.
Gioachino Rossini
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Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote operas, as well as some sacred music, songs, chamber music and piano pieces. A precocious composer of operas, he made his debut at the age of eighteen. His best-known operas include the Italian comedies Il barbiere di Siviglia, Litaliana in Algeri and he also wrote a string of serious operas in Italian, including works such as Tancredi, Otello and Semiramide. The semi-serious opera La Gazza Ladra has one of Rossinis most celebrated overtures, after moving to Paris in 1824, he eventually started to write in French. His last opera, the epic Guillaume Tell, replete with its iconic overture, after composing thirty-nine significant operas in nineteen years Rossini retired from the theatre in 1829. Later, he was affected by physical and mental illnesses and for decades wrote relatively little apart from a setting of the Stabat Mater. A return to Paris from Italy in 1855 was followed by better health, during these, he presented salon music in the form of songs, piano pieces and small chamber ensembles that he called Sins of Old Age. He considered the last of these Sins to be the unusually scored Petite messe solennelle that he wrote in 1863, Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history, and he was one of the most renowned public figures of his time. A rapid and prolific composer, he was quoted as joking, Give me the laundress bill, a tendency for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, earning him the nickname The Italian Mozart. Use of a build up of orchestral sound over a repeated phrase—commonly known as a Rossini crescendo—also prompted the nickname Signor Crescendo. Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born into a family of musicians in Pesaro and his father, Giuseppe, was a horn player and inspector of slaughterhouses. His mother, Anna, was a singer and a bakers daughter, Rossinis father was sympathetic to the French Revolution and welcomed Napoleons troops when they arrived in northern Italy. When Austria restored the old regime, Rossinis father was sent to prison in 1799, Rossinis mother took him to Bologna, making a living as leading singer at various theatres of the Romagna region. Her husband would ultimately join her in Bologna, during this time, Rossini was frequently left in the care of his aging grandmother, who had difficulty supervising the boy. He remained at Bologna in the care of a pork butcher while his father played the horn in the orchestras of the theatres at which his wife sang and these qualities made him a subject for ridicule in the eyes of the young Rossini. He was eventually taken from Prinetti and apprenticed to a blacksmith, in Angelo Tesei, he found a congenial music master, and learned to sight-read, play accompaniments on the piano and sing well enough to take solo parts in the church when he was ten years of age. Important products of this period are six sonate a quattro, or string sonatas, the original scores, dating from 1804 when the composer was twelve, were found in the Library of Congress in Washington D. C. In 1805, he appeared at the theatre of the Commune in Ferdinando Paers Camilla and he was also a capable horn player, treading in the footsteps of his father
16.
The Barber of Seville
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The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchaiss French comedy Le Barbier de Séville, the première of Rossinis opera took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome. Rossinis Barber has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, even after two hundred years, it remains a popular work. Rossinis opera recounts the events of the first of the three plays by French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais that revolve around the clever and enterprising character named Figaro. Mozarts opera Le nozze di Figaro, composed 30 years earlier in 1786, is based on the part of the Beaumarchais trilogy. The first Beaumarchais play was conceived as an opéra comique. The play as it is now known was premiered in 1775 by the Comédie-Française at the Théâtre des Tuileries in Paris, other operas based on the first play were composed by Giovanni Paisiello, by Nicolas Isouard in 1796, and then by Francesco Morlacchi in 1816. Though the work of Paisiello triumphed for a time, only Rossinis version has stood the test of time and continues to be a mainstay of operatic repertoire. On 11 November 1868, two days before Rossinis death, the composer Costantino DallArgine premiered an opera based on the libretto as Rossinis work. The premiere was not a failure, but critics condemned the audacity of the young composer, Rossini was well known for being remarkably productive, completing an average of two operas per year for 19 years, and in some years writing as many as four. The premiere of Rossinis opera at the Teatro Argentina in Rome was a failure, the audience hissed and jeered throughout. Furthermore, many of the audience were supporters of one of Rossinis rivals, Giovanni Paisiello, Paisiello had already composed The Barber of Seville and took Rossinis new version to be an affront to his version. In particular, Paisiello and his followers were opposed to the use of basso buffo, the second performance met with quite a different fate, becoming a roaring success. The original French play, Le Barbier de Séville, endured a similar story, poorly received at first and it was first performed in America on 3 May 1819 in English at the Park Theatre in New York. The cast of eight had three members of his family, including the 17-year-old Maria-Felicia, later known as Maria Malibran. The role of Rosina was originally written for a contralto, according to music critic Richard Osborne, writing in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, it is important to record the degree to which singers have sometimes distorted Rossini’s intentions. The most serious distortion has been the upward transposition of the role of Rosina,1820 at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris, where it was published. The singing lesson in act 2 has often turned into a show-stopping cabaret
17.
Maria Malibran
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Maria Malibran was a Spanish mezzo-soprano who commonly sang both contralto and soprano parts, and was one of the most famous opera singers of the 19th century. Malibran was known for her personality and dramatic intensity, becoming a legendary figure after her death at age 28. Contemporary accounts of her voice describe its range, power and flexibility as extraordinary, Malibran was born in Paris as María Felicitas García Sitches into a famous Spanish musical family. Her father, Manuel García, was a celebrated tenor much admired by Rossini, García was also a composer and an influential vocal instructor, and he was her first voice teacher. He was described as inflexible and tyrannical, the lessons he gave his daughter became constant quarrels between two powerful egos, Malibran first appeared on stage in Naples with her father in Paër’s Agnese, when she was 8 years old. When she was 17, she was a singer in the choir of the Kings Theatre in London, when prima donna Giuditta Pasta became indisposed, García suggested that his daughter take over in the role of Rosina in The Barber of Seville. The audience loved the young mezzo, and she continued to sing this role until the end of the season, when the season closed, García immediately took his operatic troupe to New York. The troupe consisted primarily of the members of his family, Maria, her brother, Manuel, marias younger sister, Pauline, who would later become a famous singer in her own right under the name of Pauline Viardot, was then only four years old. This was the first time that Italian opera was performed in New York, over a period of nine months, Maria sang the lead roles in eight operas, two of which were written by her father. In New York, she met and hastily married a banker, Francois Eugene Malibran and it is thought that her father forced Maria to marry him in return for the bankers promise to give Manuel García 100,000 francs. However, according to accounts, she married simply to escape her tyrannical father. A few months after the wedding, her husband declared bankruptcy, after a year, she left Malibran and returned to Europe. In Europe, Malibran sang the role at the premiere of Donizettis Maria Stuarda. The opera was based on Friedrich Schillers play Mary Stuart, and as it portrayed Mary, Queen of Scots in a light, censors demanded textual amendments. The Library of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels conserves a series of interesting coloured costume projects for this play, created by Malibran, Malibran became romantically involved with the Belgian violinist, Charles Auguste de Bériot. The pair lived together as a couple for six years. Felix Mendelssohn wrote an aria accompanied by a solo violin especially for the couple, Malibran sang at the Paris Opera among other major opera houses. In Paris, she met and performed with Michael Balfe, in 1834, Malibran moved to England and began to perform in London
18.
Paris Opera
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The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of France. Classical ballet as we know it today arose within the Paris Opera as the Paris Opera Ballet and has remained an integral, small scale and contemporary works are also staged in the 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille. The companys annual budget is in the order of 200 million euros, with this money, the company runs the two houses and supports a large permanent staff, which includes the orchestra of 170, a chorus of 110 and the corps de ballet of 150. Each year, the Opéra presents about 380 performances of opera, ballet and other concerts, to an audience of about 800,000 people. In the 2012/13 season, the Opéra presented 18 opera titles,13 ballets,5 symphonic concerts, the companys training bodies are also active, with 7 concerts from the Atelier Lyrique and 4 programmes from the École de Danse. The poet Pierre Perrin began thinking and writing about the possibility of French opera in 1655 and he believed that the prevailing opinion of the time that the French language was fundamentally unmusical was completely incorrect. Seventeenth-century France offered Perrin essentially two types of organization for realizing his vision, an academy or a public theater. On 28 June 1669, Louis XIV signed the Privilège accordé au Sieur Perrin pour létablissement dune Académie dOpéra en musique and he was free to select business partners of his choice and to set the price of tickets. No one was to have the right of free entry including members of the royal court, although it was to be a public theatre, it retained its status as royal academy in which the authority of the king as the primary stakeholder was decisive. The monopoly, originally intended to protect the enterprise from competition during its phase, was renewed for subsequent recipients of the privilege up to the early French Revolution. As Victoria Johnson points out, the Opera was an organization by nature so luxurious and expensive in its productions that its survival depended on financial protection. His first opera Pomone with music by Robert Cambert opened on 3 March 1671, a second work, Les peines et les plaisirs de lamour, with a libretto by Gabriel Gilbert and music by Cambert, was performed in 1672. The institution was renamed the Académie Royale de Musique and came to be known in France simply as the Opéra. Because of legal difficulties Lully could not use the Salle de la Bouteille, during Lullys tenure, the only works performed were his own. The first productions were the pastorale Les fêtes de lAmour et de Bacchus, Lully greatly desired a better theatre and persuaded the king to let him use the one at the Palais-Royal free of charge. The Théâtre du Palais-Royal had been altered in 1660 and 1671, the first production in the new theatre was Alceste on 19 January 1674. The opera was bitterly attacked by those enraged at the restrictions that Lully had caused to be placed on the French, to mitigate the damage, Louis XIV arranged for new works to be premiered at the court, usually at the Chateau Vieux of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This had the advantage of subsidizing the cost of rehearsals, as well as most of the machinery, sets, and costumes
19.
Bologna
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Bologna is the largest city of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, located in the heart of an area of about one million. The first settlements back to at least 1000 BC. The city has been a centre, first under the Etruscans. Home to the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, founded in 1088, Bologna is also an important transportation crossroad for the roads and trains of Northern Italy, where many important mechanical, electronic and nutritional industries have their headquarters. According to the most recent data gathered by the European Regional Economic Growth Index of 2009, Bologna is the first Italian city, Bologna is home to numerous prestigious cultural, economic and political institutions as well as one of the most impressive trade fair districts in Europe. In 2000 it was declared European capital of culture and in 2006, the city of Bologna was selected to participate in the Universal Exposition of Shanghai 2010 together with 45 other cities from around the world. Bologna is also one of the wealthiest cities in Italy, often ranking as one of the top cities in terms of quality of life in the country, after a long decline, Bologna was reborn in the 5th century under Bishop Petronius. According to legend, St. Petronius built the church of S. Stefano. After the fall of Rome, Bologna was a stronghold of the Exarchate of Ravenna in the Po plain. In 728, the city was captured by the Lombard king Liutprand, the Germanic conquerors formed a district called addizione longobarda near the complex of S. Stefano. Charlemagne stayed in this district in 786, traditionally said to be founded in 1088, the University of Bologna is widely considered to be the first university. The university originated as a centre of study of medieval Roman law under major glossators. It numbered Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarca among its students, the medical school is especially famous. In the 12th century, the families engaged in continual internecine fighting. Troops of Pope Julius II besieged Bologna and sacked the artistic treasures of his palace, in 1530, in front of Saint Petronio Church, Charles V was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII. Then a plague at the end of the 16th century reduced the population from 72,000 to 59,000, the population later recovered to a stable 60, 000–65,000. However, there was also great progress during this era, in 1564, the Piazza del Nettuno and the Palazzo dei Banchi were built, along with the Archiginnasio, the centre of the University
20.
Cantata
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A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. Cantatas for use in the liturgy of church services are called church cantata or sacred cantata, several cantatas were, and still are, written for special occasions, such as Christmas cantatas. Johann Sebastian Bach composed cycles of cantatas for the occasions of the liturgical year. The term originated in the early 17th century simultaneously with opera, prior to that, all cultured music was vocal. With the rise of music the term appeared, while the instrumental art became sufficiently developed to be embodied in sonatas. From the beginning of the 17th century until late in the 18th, a cantata consisted first of a declamatory narrative or scene in recitative, held together by a primitive aria repeated at intervals. Fine examples may be found in the music of Giacomo Carissimi. With the rise of the da capo aria, the became a group of two or three arias joined by recitative. George Frideric Handels numerous Italian duets and trios are examples on a large scale. His Latin motet Silete Venti, for solo, shows the use of this form in church music. This is equally evident whether we examine the church cantatas of Bach, of which nearly 200 are extant. Cantatas were in demand for the services of the Lutheran church. Many secular cantatas were composed for events in the nobility and they were so similar in form to the sacred ones that many of them were parodied to sacred cantatas, for example in Bachs Christmas Oratorio. The term cantata came to be applied almost exclusively to choral works, Anton Bruckner composed several Name-day cantatas, a Festive Cantata and two secular cantatas. Brucknerss Psalm 146 is also in cantata form, mendelssohns Symphony Cantata, the Lobgesang, is a hybrid work, partly in the oratorio style. Robert Schumann wrote the cantata Paradise and the Peri, the full lyric possibilities of a string of choral songs were realized by Johannes Brahms in his Rinaldo, that—like the Walpurgisnacht—was set to a text by Goethe. The competition for the French Prix de Rome prescribed that each candidate submit a cantata, hector Berlioz failed in three attempts before finally winning in 1830 with Sardanapale. While almost all of the Prix de Rome cantatas have long since been forgotten, cantatas, both of the chamber variety and on a grand scale, were composed after 1900 as well
21.
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
22.
Giulia Grisi
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Giulia Grisi was an Italian opera singer. She performed widely in Europe, the United States and South America and is considered to be one of the leading sopranos of the 19th century. Her second husband was Giovanni Matteo Mario de Candia, scion of a family of the Kingdom of Sardinia. She is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and her grave is marked Juliette de Candia, using the de Candia name. Born in Milan, Giulia Grisi was the daughter of Gaetano Grisi, one of Napoleons Italian officers and she came from a musically-gifted family, her maternal aunt Giuseppina Grassini being a favourite opera singer both on the continent and in London. Her older sister, Giuditta and her cousin Carlotta were both artistes, the former as a singer and the latter as a ballet dancer, Giuditta was the creator of the pants role of Romeo in Bellinis I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Grisi was trained for a career, making her stage debut as Emma in Rossinis Zelmira in Bologna in 1828. Rossini and Bellini both took an interest in her, she was the first to play the part of Adalgisa in Bellinis Norma in Milan, in which the dramatic soprano Giuditta Pasta took the title role. In 1842, Donizetti wrote the parts of Norina and Ernesto in Don Pasquale for Grisi and Giovanni Matteo De Candia, usually known by his stage-name of Mario, who was to become the love of her life. Her voice was described as a dramatic soprano which, during her prime, was praised by critics for its exceptional beauty. Her career spanned 30 years in total and she was a noted actress, appearing regularly in London with such eminent singers as Luigi Lablache, Giovanni Battista Rubini and Antonio Tamburini, not to mention her husband, Mario. Indeed, the prickly press commentator Henry Chorley praised both her and Mario for their success in establishing Italian opera as an important component of the London music scene. In 1854, after they were married, Giulia and Mario undertook a tour of the United States of America. Grisi married Count Gérard de Melcy in 1836, the marriage was unhappy but he refused her a divorce for some years. In 1838, her husband discovered a letter written to her by Frederick Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry, Lord Castlereagh was wounded in the wrist, the Count was uninjured. After the duel, Grisi left her husband and began an affair with Lord Castlereagh and their son, George Frederick Ormsby, was born in November 1838 and brought up by his father, who had no legitimate children by his wife. After Grisi and Lord Castlereaghs relationship ended, he brought their son to see her whenever she was in England, whilst living with Mario Count Giovanni de Candia before their marriage, Giulia and Mario kept homes in Paris and London. Eventually, Grisi obtained her divorce and married Mario, with whom she had six daughters, once married, they returned to Italy and lived at the Villa Salviati in Florence, a property Mario had purchased in 1849
23.
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
24.
Palermo
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Palermo is a city of Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence, Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The city was founded in 734 BC by the Phoenicians as Ziz, Palermo then became a possession of Carthage, before becoming part of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and eventually part of the Byzantine Empire, for over a thousand years. The Greeks named the city Panormus meaning complete port, from 831 to 1072 the city was under Arab rule during the Emirate of Sicily when the city first became a capital. The Arabs shifted the Greek name into Balarme, the root for Palermos present-day name, eventually Sicily would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860. The population of Palermo urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 855,285, in the central area, the city has a population of around 676,000 people. The inhabitants are known as Palermitani or, poetically, panormiti, the languages spoken by its inhabitants are the Italian language, Sicilian language and the Palermitano dialect. Palermo is Sicilys cultural, economic and touristic capital and it is a city rich in history, culture, art, music and food. Palermo is the main Sicilian industrial and commercial center, the industrial sectors include tourism, services, commerce. Palermo currently has an airport, and a significant underground economy. In fact, for cultural, artistic and economic reasons, Palermo was one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean and is now among the top tourist destinations in both Italy and Europe. It is the seat of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Arab-Norman Palermo. The city is going through careful redevelopment, preparing to become one of the major cities of the Euro-Mediterranean area. Roman Catholicism is highly important in Palermitano culture, the Patron Saint of Palermo is Santa Rosalia whose Feast Day is celebrated on 15 July. The area attracts significant numbers of each year and is widely known for its colourful fruit, vegetable and fish markets at the heart of Palermo, known as Vucciria, Ballarò. Palermo lies in a basin, formed by the Papireto, Kemonia, the basin was named the Conca dOro by the Arabs in the 9th century. The city is surrounded by a range which is named after the city itself. These mountains face the Tyrrhenian Sea, Palermo is home to a natural port and offers excellent views to the sea, especially from Monte Pellegrino
25.
Bergamo
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Bergamo is a city in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan and 30 km from the lakes Como and Iseo. The foothills of the Bergamo Alps begin immediately north of the town, Bergamo is the seat of the Province of Bergamo. With a population of around 120,000, Bergamo is the fourth-largest city in Lombardy, the metropolitan area of Bergamo extends beyond the administrative city limits, spanning over a densely urbanized area with slightly less than 500,000 inhabitants. The Bergamo metropolitan area is part of the broader Milan metropolitan area. As of 2015, Bergamo is the second most visited city in Lombardy after Milan, Bergamo occupies the site of the ancient town of Bergomum, founded as a settlement of the Celtic tribe of Cenomani. In 49 BC it became a Roman municipality, containing c.10,000 inhabitants at its peak, an important hub on the military road between Friuli and Raetia, it was destroyed by Attila in the 5th century. From the 6th century Bergamo was the seat of one of the most important Lombard duchies of northern Italy, together with Brescia, Trento, after the conquest of the Lombard Kingdom by Charlemagne, it became the seat of a county under one Auteramus. An important Lombardic hoard dating from the 6th to 7th centuries was found in the vicinity of the city in the 19th century and is now in the British Museum. From the 11th century onwards, Bergamo was an independent commune, the local Guelph and Ghibelline factions were the Colleoni and Suardi, respectively. Feuding between the two initially caused the family of Omodeo Tasso to flee north c, from 1264, Bergamo was intermittently under the rule of Milan. In 1331, it gave itself to John of Bohemia, after a short conquest by the Malatesta in 1407, in 1428 it fell under the control of the Venetian Republic, remaining part of it until 1797. Between 1797 and 1815, Bergamo and its territory were included in the political entities born in North Italy during the French, notably, the Venetians fortified the higher portion of the town. In 1815, it was assigned to the Austrian Empire, giuseppe Garibaldi freed it in 1859 during the Second Italian War of Independence, when Bergamo became part of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 20th century Bergamo became one of Italys most industrialized cities and it is also one of the few Italian cities that did not suffer major destruction during World War II. Bergamo experiences a subtropical climate characteristic of Northern Italy. While most of Italy is characterized by dry summers with little to no precipitation, Bergamo has the reverse trend, the two parts of the town are connected by funicular/cable car, roads, and foot-paths. Parking spaces are limited in the upper city. The upper city, surrounded by Venetian walls built in the 16th century, Città Alta is an extremely expensive place to live in, with properties being sold for five to twelve thousand euro per square meter
26.
Pavia
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Pavia is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy,35 kilometres south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c, the city was the capital of the Kingdom of the Lombards from 572 to 774. Pavia is the capital of the province of Pavia, known for agricultural products including wine, rice, cereals. Although there are a number of industries located in the suburbs, Pavia is the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Pavia. The city possesses many artistic and cultural treasures, including several important churches and museums, dating back to pre-Roman times, the town of Pavia, then known as Ticinum, was a municipality and an important military site under the Roman Empire. It was said by Pliny the Elder to have founded by the Laevi and Marici. It was at Pavia in 476 AD that the reign of Romulus Augustulus, ten months after Romulus Augustulus’s reign began, Orestes’s soldiers under the command of one of his officers named Odoacer, rebelled and killed Orestes in the city of Pavia in 476. Without his father Romulus Augustulus was powerless, instead of killing Romulus Augustulus, Odoacer pensioned him off at 6,000 solidi a year before declaring the end of the Western Roman Empire and himself king of the new Kingdom of Italy. Odoacer’s reign as king of Italy did not last long, because in 488 the Ostrogothic peoples led by their king Theoderic invaded Italy and waged war against Odoacer. After fighting for 5 years Theoderic defeated Odoacer and on March 15,493 assassinated Odoacer at a banquet meant to negotiate a peace between the two rulers, with the establishment of the Ostrogoth kingdom based in northern Italy, Theoderic began his vast program of public building. Pavia was among several cities that Theodoric chose to restore and expand and he began the construction of the vast palace complex that would eventually become the residence of Lombard monarchs several decades later. Near the end of Theoderic’s reign the Christian philosopher Boethius was imprisoned in one of Pavia’s churches from 522 to 525 before his execution for treason and it was during Boethius’s captivity in Pavia that he wrote his seminal work the Consolation of Philosophy. Pavia played an important role in the war between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogoths that began in 535, after the capitulation of the Ostrogothic leadership in 540 more than a thousand men remained garrisoned in Pavia and Verona dedicated to opposing Eastern Roman rule. The resilience of Ostrogoth strongholds like Pavia against invading forces allowed pockets of Ostrogothic rule to limp along until finally being defeated in 561, Pavia and the peninsula of Italy didn’t remain long under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire for in 568 a new people invaded Italy. This new invading people in 568 were the Lombards, in their invasion of Italy in 568, the Lombards were led by their king Alboin, who would become the first Lombard king of Italy. Alboin captured much of northern Italy in 568 but his progress was halted in 569 by the city of Pavia. Meanwhile Alboin, after driving out the soldiers, took possession of everything as far as Tuscany except Rome and Ravenna and some other fortified places which were situated on the shore of the sea. ”The Siege of Ticinum finally ended with the Lombards capturing the city of Pavia in 572. Pavia’s strategic location and the Ostrogoth palaces located within it would make Pavia by the 620s the main capital of the Lombards’ Kingdom of Pavia, under Lombard rule many monasteries, nunneries, and churches were built at Pavia by the devout Christian Lombard monarchs
27.
Milan
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Milan is a city in Italy, capital of the Lombardy region, and the most populous metropolitan area and the second most populous comune in Italy. The population of the city proper is 1,351,000, Milan has a population of about 8,500,000 people. It is the industrial and financial centre of Italy and one of global significance. In terms of GDP, it has the largest economy among European non-capital cities, Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and lies at the heart of one of the Four Motors for Europe. Milan is an Alpha leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research, and tourism. Its business district hosts Italys Stock Exchange and the headquarters of the largest national and international banks, the city is a major world fashion and design capital, well known for several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair. The city hosts numerous cultural institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total enrolled students, Milans museums, theatres and landmarks attract over 9 million visitors annually. Milan – after Naples – is the second Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, the city hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. Milan is home to two of Europes major football teams, A. C. Milan and F. C. Internazionale, the etymology of Milan is uncertain. One theory holds that the Latin name Mediolanum comes from the Latin words medio, however, some scholars believe lanum comes from the Celtic root lan, meaning an enclosure or demarcated territory in which Celtic communities used to build shrines. Hence, Mediolanum could signify the central town or sanctuary of a Celtic tribe, indeed, the name Mediolanum is borne by about sixty Gallo-Roman sites in France, e. g. Saintes and Évreux. Alciato credits Ambrose for his account, around 400 BC, the Celtic Insubres settled Milan and the surrounding region. In 222 BC, the Romans conquered the settlement, renaming it Mediolanum, Milan was eventually declared the capital of the Western Roman Empire by Emperor Diocletian in 286 AD. Diocletian chose to stay in the Eastern Roman Empire and his colleague Maximianus ruled the Western one, immediately Maximian built several monuments, such as a large circus 470 m ×85 m, the Thermae Herculeae, a large complex of imperial palaces and several other buildings. With the Edict of Milan of 313, Emperor Constantine I guaranteed freedom of religion for Christians, after the city was besieged by the Visigoths in 402, the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. In 452, the Huns overran the city, in 539, the Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan during the Gothic War against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the summer of 569, a Teutonic tribe, the Lombards, conquered Milan, some Roman structures remained in use in Milan under Lombard rule. Milan surrendered to the Franks in 774 when Charlemagne took the title of King of the Lombards, the Iron Crown of Lombardy dates from this period
28.
Otello (Rossini)
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Otello is an opera in three acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Berio di Salsi. The work is based on a French adaptation of the story, the opera deviates heavily from Shakespeares version not only in that it takes place in Venice and not on Cyprus, but also in that the whole dramatic conflict develops in a different manner. The role of Iago is reduced to some degree, and it is much less diabolical than in the original or in Verdis Otello of 1887. In further contrast, the role of Rodrigo, of importance in Shakespeare and Verdi, is very prominent in Rossinis version and is assigned some of the most difficult. The roles of Otello, Iago, and Rodrigo are all composed for the tenor voice, Rossinis Otello is an important milestone in the development of opera as musical drama. It provided Giuseppe Verdi with a benchmark for his own adaptations of Shakespeare, a 1999 Opera Rara CD of the opera includes an alternative happy ending, a common practice with drama and opera at that period of the 19th century. 19th century The first performance took place at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples on 4 December 1816. It was first performed in Paris on 5 June 1821 at the Théâtre Italien, in London on 16 May 1822 at the Kings Theatre, and in New York on 7 February 1826 at the Park Theatre. During this period Iago was assigned to the Italian sometimes-second-tenor, sometimes-baritone Giovanola at the Théâtre Italien in Paris on 26 July 1823 with Giuditta Pasta as Desdemona, the Spanish baritone Manuel García, Jr. sang the role on his familys trip to the New York in 1826. French baritone Paul Barroilhet appeared in 1844 in Paris, where he interpolated the aria from Rossinis La donna del lago and his successor, Jean-Baptiste Faure, sang the role in 1871. A French printed edition from 1823 already shows Iagos part written in the bass clef, Operabase, the performance database, lists 20 performances of Rossinis Otello in the years 2013 and 2014, in 5 productions in different cities. In October 2012, Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, New Mexico presented three performances of the opera, the first gave both the original and the alternative happy ending. Prior to the performances, the audience voted for the ending they preferred. Also in 2012, the opera was staged in Zurich by the Vlaamse Opera, the same production was given in Ghent and Antwerp in February and March 2014. Buxton Festival presented the opera in concert form in July 2014, place, Venice Time, End of the 18th Century According to the booklet of the Milanese representations of 1818, Otello, African to the service of Adria, victor returns from a battle against the Turks. A secret wedding ties him to Desdemona, daughter of his enemy, Elmiro Patrizio Veneto, already promised to Rodrigo, notes Sources Gossett, Philip, Brauner, Patricia, Otello in Holden, Amanda, The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York, Penguin Putnam. ISBN 0-14-029312-4 Osborne, Charles, The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, ISBN0931340713 Osborne, Richard, Rossini, Ithaca, New York, Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-088-5 Osborne, Richard, Otello, in Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5 Senici, Emanuele, The Cambridge Companion to Rossini, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
29.
La Scala
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La Scala is an opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was known as the Nuovo Regio Ducale Teatro alla Scala. The premiere performance was Antonio Salieris Europa riconosciuta, most of Italys greatest operatic artists, and many of the finest singers from around the world, have appeared at La Scala during the past 200 years. The theatre is regarded as one of the opera and ballet theatres in the world and is home to the La Scala Theatre Chorus, La Scala Theatre Ballet. The theatre also has a school, known as the La Scala Theatre Academy. La Scalas season traditionally opens on 7 December, Saint Ambroses Day, all performances must end before midnight, and long operas start earlier in the evening when necessary. La Scala also hosts the Accademia dArti e Mestieri dello Spettacolo and its goal is to train a new generation of young musicians, technical staff, and dancers. A fire destroyed the theatre, the Teatro Regio Ducale, on 25 February 1776. The neoclassical architect Giuseppe Piermarini produced a design but it was rejected by Count Firmian. A second plan was accepted in 1776 by Empress Maria Theresa, the new theatre was built on the former location of the church of Santa Maria alla Scala, from which the theatre gets its name. The church was deconsecrated and demolished, and over a period of two years the theatre was completed by Pietro Marliani, Pietro Nosetti and Antonio and Giuseppe Fe. The theatre had a total of 3,000 or so seats organized into 678 pit-stalls and its stage is one of the largest in Italy. Building expenses were covered by the sale of palchi, which were decorated by their owners. La Scala soon became the preeminent meeting place for noble and wealthy Milanese people, in the tradition of the times, the platea had no chairs and spectators watched the shows standing up. The orchestra was in sight, as the golfo mistico had not yet been built. Above the boxes, La Scala has a gallery—called the loggione—where the less wealthy can watch the performances, the gallery is typically crowded with the most critical opera aficionados, known as the loggionisti, who can be ecstatic or merciless towards singers perceived successes or failures. As with most of the theatres at that time, La Scala was also a casino, conditions in the auditorium, too, could be frustrating for the opera lover, as Mary Shelley discovered in September 1840, At the Opera they were giving Otto Nicolais Templario. La Scala was originally illuminated with 84 oil lamps mounted on the palcoscenico, to prevent the risks of fire, several rooms were filled with hundreds of water buckets
30.
Giacomo Meyerbeer
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Giacomo Meyerbeer was a German opera composer of Jewish birth who has been described as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century. With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera decisive character, Meyerbeers grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra and they set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century. Born to a very wealthy Berlin family, Meyerbeer began his career as a pianist but soon decided to devote himself to opera. His 1824 opera Il crociato in Egitto was the first to bring him Europe-wide reputation and he was at his peak with his operas Les Huguenots and Le prophète, his last opera was performed posthumously. His operas made him the most frequently performed composer at the leading opera houses in the nineteenth century. He was a supporter of Richard Wagner, enabling the first production of the latters opera. He was commissioned to write the patriotic opera Ein Feldlager in Schlesien to celebrate the reopening of the Berlin Royal Opera House in 1844, apart from around 50 songs, Meyerbeer wrote little except for the stage. Meyerbeers works are infrequently performed today. Meyerbeers birthname was Jacob Liebmann Beer, he was born in Tasdorf, near Berlin, then the capital of Prussia, to a Jewish family. His father was the wealthy financier Judah Herz Beer and his mother, Amalia Wulff, to whom he was particularly devoted. Their other children included the astronomer Wilhelm Beer and the poet Michael Beer and he was to adopt the surname Meyerbeer on the death of his grandfather Liebmann Meyer Wulff and the first name Giacomo during his period of study in Italy, around 1817. Judah Beer was a leader of the Berlin Jewish community and maintained a synagogue in his house which leaned towards reformist views. Jacob Beer wrote a cantata for performance at this synagogue. The brothers Alexander von Humboldt, the renowned naturalist, geographer and explorer, beers first keyboard instructor was Franz Lauska, a pupil of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and a favoured teacher at the Berlin court. Beer also became one of Muzio Clementis pupils while Clementi was in Berlin, the boy made his public debut in 1801 playing Mozarts D minor Piano Concerto in Berlin. Beer, as he named himself, studied with Antonio Salieri. Louis Spohr organised a concert for Beer at Berlin in 1804 and continued his acquaintance with the lad later in Vienna, beers first stage work, the ballet Der Fischer und das Milchmädchen was produced in March 1810 at the Court Opera in Berlin
31.
Il crociato in Egitto
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Il crociato in Egitto is an opera in two acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer, with a libretto by Gaetano Rossi. It was first performed at La Fenice theatre, Venice on 7 March 1824, the part of Armando was sung by the famous castrato, Giovanni Battista Velluti, the opera was probably the last ever written to feature a castrato. It is the last of Meyerbeers series of operas in Italian, after its successful Venetian premiere, Il Crociato was staged at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Trieste, Padua, and at His Majestys Theatre in London. For each of these productions Meyerbeer revised the work and composed new music for parts of it, over the next twenty to thirty years the opera was performed in almost every major opera house in Europe, and even in Mexico City, Havana and Constantinople. The opera formed the basis for the future great success. While it has not been staged complete in the 20th century there have been performances in both London and New York City which were recorded on LP. A staged revival was promised in Venice for the 2005-2006 season and this performance featured a natural male soprano Michael Maniaci. One of the earliest of these operas is Meyerbeers Il crociato in Egitto and it has much in common with Rossini, but, on closer examination, some significant innovations become apparent. One is the greater complexity of the finale to the first act. In Adrianos Suono funereo there is what may well be one of the earliest cases of that strain of lyrical pathos which was to be such a dominant factor in later bel canto works. Another example is Palmides big aria in Act 2, Duna madre sventurata in which the desperation of the mother comes through in the music. Place, Damietta Time, During the Sixth Crusade, which commenced in 1228, before the opera begins, Armando, missing presumed dead in fighting, has become confidante to the Sultan Aladino, under an assumed name. He has fallen in love with Aladinos daughter, who has him a son. Adriano arrives at the Sultans palace to negotiate a truce, there he recognises Armando, as does Felicia, who has disguised herself as a knight to find her betrothed. Armando and the other Christian prisoners are sentenced to imprisonment. The ambitious Osmino arms the prisoners under Armando with the intention of killing the Sultan, the Sultan relents, peace is agreed with the Knights and Armando and Palmide are reunited. Il crociato in Egitto, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, cond, soloists include Yvonne Kenny, Bruce Ford. Il crociato in Egitto Live performance DVD from Teatro La Fenice, dynamic DV33549 DVD Notes Sources Brown, Clive
32.
La Fenice
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Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre, however, the third fire was the result of arson. It destroyed the house in 1996 leaving only the exterior walls, in 1774, the Teatro San Benedetto, which had been Venices leading opera house for more than forty years, burned to the ground. By 1789, with interest from a number of opera lovers who wanted a spectacular new house. The house would face on one side a campo, or small plaza, however, the process was not without controversy especially in regard to the aesthetics of the building. Some thirty responses were received and, as Romanelli accounts, Selvas was designated as the design to be constructed, the actual award for best design went to his chief rival, Pietro Bianchi. However, Selvas design and finished opera house appears to have been of high quality, construction began in June 1790, and by May 1792 the theatre was completed. It was named La Fenice, in reference to the survival, first of the fire. La Fenice was inaugurated on 16 May 1792, with an opera by Giovanni Paisiello entitled I giuochi dAgrigento set to a libretto by Alessandro Pepoli. But no sooner had the house been rebuilt than a legal dispute broke out between the company managing it and the owners, the Venier family. The issue was decided in favor of the Veniers, at the beginning of the 19th century, La Fenice acquired a European reputation. Rossini mounted two major productions there, Tancredi in 1813 and Semiramide in 1823, two of Bellinis operas were given their premieres there, I Capuleti e i Montecchi in March 1830 and Beatrice di Tenda in March 1833. Donizetti, fresh from his triumphs at La Scala in Milan and at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, returned to Venice in 1836 with his Belisario, in December 1836, disaster struck again when the theatre was destroyed by fire. However, it was rebuilt with a design provided by the architect-engineer team of the brothers, Tommaso. The interior displays a late-Empire luxury of gilt decorations, plushy extravagance, La Fenice once again rose from its ashes to open its doors on the evening of 26 December 1837. Giuseppe Verdis association with La Fenice began in 1844, with the performance of Ernani during the carnival season. Over the next 13 years, the premieres of Attila, Rigoletto, La traviata, during the First World War, La Fenice was closed, but it reopened to become the scene of much activity, attracting many of the worlds greatest singers and conductors. On 29 January 1996, La Fenice was completely destroyed by fire, only its acoustics were preserved, since Lamberto Tronchin, an Italian acoustician, had measured the acoustics two months earlier
33.
The Maid of Artois
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The opera opened on 27 May 1836, starring Maria Malibran as the title character, Isoline. The story concerns a girl in love, who is poached by a rich Marquis, the lovers seem destined to end their days in the wastes of the desert, until an unexpected rescue comes. The opera received good notices, and the overture was much admired, balfe wrote The Maid of Artois partly as a vehicle for her. Malibran was a mezzo-soprano with a three octave range, Isoline contralto Jules tenor Marquis baritone Synnelet bass Coralie Sans Regret Martin Centinnel Count Saulnier Act 1 The grounds of a Parisian Chateau 1 Men – Drink, boys 2 Marquis – Recit. The Rosy hours 2a Marquis, Sans R, Chorus – Cavatina Then silly is the heart 3 Andante 4 Jules – Recit and my thoughts which forth Isoline – The heart that once hath Isoline, Women – Oh could I but that peace 9 Isoline, Marquis – Oh. I gaze upon the stranger land 21a Marquis – The light of the days is faded 22 Chorus, Marquis. Reviving Michael Balfes The Maid of Artois, description of the opera and of the 2005 recording by Victorian Opera Northwest, with links to a list of numbers and cast
34.
The Merry Wives of Windsor
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The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the character Sir John Falstaff, the fat knight who had previously featured in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. It has been adapted for the opera on several occasions, the play is one of Shakespeares lesser-regarded works among literary critics. In all other respects, the play implies a contemporary setting of the Elizabethan era, Falstaff arrives in Windsor very short on money. He decides, to financial advantage, that he will court two wealthy married women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. Falstaff decides to send the women identical love letters and asks his servants – Pistol, when they refuse, Falstaff sacks them, and, in revenge, the men tell Ford and Page of Falstaffs intentions. Page is not concerned, but the jealous Ford persuades the Host of the Garter Inn to introduce him to Falstaff as a Master Brook so that he can find out Falstaffs plans, meanwhile, three different men are trying to win the hand of Pages daughter, Anne Page. Mistress Page would like her daughter to marry Doctor Caius, a French physician, Anne herself is in love with Master Fenton, but Page had previously rejected Fenton as a suitor due to his having squandered his considerable fortune on high-class living. Hugh Evans, a Welsh parson, tries to enlist the help of Mistress Quickly in wooing Anne for Slender, the Host of the Garter Inn prevents this duel by telling both men a different meeting place, causing much amusement for himself, Justice Shallow, Page and others. Evans and Caius decide to work together to be revenged on the Host, when the women receive the letters, each goes to tell the other, and they quickly find that the letters are almost identical. This all results in embarrassment for Falstaff. Mr. Ford poses as Mr. Brook and says he is in love with Mistress Ford and he offers to pay Falstaff to court her, saying that once she has lost her honour he will be able to tempt her himself. Falstaff cannot believe his luck, and tells Brook he has arranged to meet Mistress Ford while her husband is out. Falstaff leaves to keep his appointment and Ford soliloquises that he is right to suspect his wife, when Falstaff arrives to meet Mistress Ford, the merry wives trick him into hiding in a laundry basket full of filthy, smelly clothes awaiting laundering. When the jealous Ford returns to try and catch his wife with the knight, the wives have the basket taken away, although this affects Falstaffs pride, his ego is surprisingly resilient. He is convinced that the wives are just playing hard to get him, so he continues his pursuit of sexual advancement, with its attendant capital. Again Falstaff goes to meet the women but Mistress Page comes back and they try to think of ways to hide him other than the laundry basket which he refuses to get into again. They trick him again, this time into disguising himself as Mistress Fords maids obese aunt, Ford tries once again to catch his wife with the knight but ends up beating the old woman, whom he despises, and throwing her out of his house
35.
Luigi Lablache
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Luigi Lablache was an Italian opera singer of French and Irish heritage. He was most noted for his performances, possessing a powerful and agile bass voice, a wide range. Luigi Lablache was born in Naples, the son of Nicolas Lablache and he fled the Conservatorio five times in order to pursue an acting career, but each time he was brought back in disgrace. His voice was a contralto, and just before it broke he sang the solos in Mozarts Requiem on the death of Joseph Haydn in 1809. In 1812, when only eighteen, he was engaged at the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, from 1812 to 1817 he sang at Palermo. In 1817, at La Scala in Milan, he took the part of Dandini in Rossinis La Cenerentola, the opera Elisa e Claudio was written for him in 1821 by Saverio Mercadante and his position was assured. From Milan he went to Turin, returned to Milan in 1822, then appeared at Venice, going back to Naples after an absence of twelve years, he created a great sensation as Assur in Rossinis Semiramide. In 1827 Franz Schubert wrote three songs in Italian for Lablache, marvellous exercises in Rossinian pastiche, they are among the last songs he ever wrote. A physically imposing man, his voice was at all times extraordinarily powerful, as an actor, he excelled equally in comic and tragic parts. His chief rôles were Leporello, Geronimo the Podestà in La gazza ladra, Dandini in La Prova d un Opera Seria, Henry VIII in Anna Bolena the Doge in Marino Faliero and he created the title role in Donizettis Don Pasquale in 1843. Towards the close of his career he played two new characters of different types with great success, Shakespeares Caliban and Gritzenko, the Kalmuck, in Scribes. At the funeral of Beethoven in 1827 he was one of the thirty-two torchbearers who surrounded the coffin and he sang the same Requiem at Chopins funeral in 1849. He was the soloist, singing a Lacrimosa, at Bellinis funeral in 1835, in 1836/37 he taught singing to Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom, the later Queen Victoria. Luigi Lablache died at Naples on 23 January 1858, and was buried at Maisons-Laffitte and he had married the singer Teresa Pinotti in 1813, and they had thirteen children, several of them, notably Frederick Lablache, were also singers. His eldest daughter, Francesca, married the pianist Sigismond Thalberg in 1843, the actor Stewart Granger was his great-great-grandson and the BBC TV Antiques Roadshow expert Bunny Campione is also a descendant. Notes Sources This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Lablache
36.
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
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Giovanni Battista Rubini
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Giovanni Battista Rubini was an Italian tenor, as famous in his time as Enrico Caruso in a later day. His ringing and expressive coloratura dexterity in the highest register of his voice, as a singer Rubini was the major early exponent of the Romantic style of the bel canto era of Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti. Rubini is remembered as a bel canto singer, one of the most famous in Europe in the 1820s to 1840s. He also popularized the use of a pervasive vibrato as a means of heightening the impact of his operatic performances. However, if his upper register was exceptional—he could effortlessly go up to a ringing high F --, he was reported as barely audible in the parts of his voice. He also had a volume control, struggling to produce mezzo-forte or mezzo-piano dynamics. On the other hand, he was admired for the joy he took to sing, his great agility. Born in Romano di Lombardia, Rubini began as a violinist at twelve years of age at the Teatro Riccardi in Bergamo and his first appearance as singer was 1814 in Pavia in Le lagrime duna vedova by Pietro Generali. He divided his time between Paris and London and his special relation with Vincenzo Bellini began with Bianca e Fernando and continued until I puritani, when he was one of the long-remembered Puritani quartet for whose voices the opera was written. Rubini was admitted as a member of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. He died in his hometown of Romano in 1854, and is buried in the cemetery there, notes Sources Budden, Julian, Rubini, Giovanni Battista in Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. Four, pp. 79–80. ISBN 0-333-73432-7 ISBN 1-56159-228-5 Cassinelli, Bruno, Antonio Maltempi, Mario Pozzoni, Rubini, comune di Romano di Lombardia, Cassa Rurale ed Artigiana di Calcio e di Covo, Vol. Gara, Eugênio, Giovan Battista Rubini nel Centenario della Morte, green, Geoffrey, Voices in a Mask, Stories, Triquarterly/Northwestern University Press. Giovanni Battista Rubini and the Bel Canto Tenors, History and Technique, Scarecrow Press ISBN9780810886674 Osborne, Richard, Rossini, Ithaca, New York, pleasants, Henry, The Great Singers, From the Dawn of Opera to Caruso, Callas and Pavarotti. ISBN 0-671-42160-3 Traini, Carlo, Il Cigno di Romano, bérgamo, Committee for the Centenary celebrations 1954. Zucker, Stefan, Giovanni Battista Rubini, Opera News, Volume 46,12, February 13,1982 Gori, Hélio, Giovanni Battista Rubini, An Abridged Biography. Escola Livre de Canto Lirico G. B, Rubini Circolo Amici della Lirica G. B. Rubini La Scuola Libera di Canto Lirico Giovan Battista Rubini in Brazil
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Antonio Tamburini
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Antonio Tamburini was an Italian operatic baritone. He went on to one of the finest baritones of his age. He had a beautiful, smooth and flexible voice the quality of which is indicated by the bel canto music written for him. Castil-Blaze described his voice in The Harmonicon of May 1833, His voice is a baritone, well defined, extending from A to F, occasionally reaching G#. I might have allotted to him the two full octaves without reserve, but I prefer to retrench the semitone, above and below, that I may give to his voice and tone the full praise it merits. It is round, rich, and clear, of wonderful flexibility, and such astonishing firmness and he has the neatness and precision of execution that Ber and Barizel have acquired on the clarionet or bassoon. The tone is equal in its extent, taking and holding F# with as much ease as a tenor voice would do. However, it is apparent from several comments in the English and Irish press that, certainly by 1847 and he was renowned also for his good looks and impressive stage presence, often working with the tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini and soprano Giulia Grisi. Tamburini is famous for his association with the operas of Bellini such as I Puritani, indeed, he was one of the so-called Puritani Quartet of leading international singers, along with Grisi, Rubini and the bass Luigi Lablache. The quartet was reunited on stage, albeit with Giovanni Mario replacing Rubini, a particular favourite with London and Paris audiences, Tamburini was married to the contralto Marietta Gioia-Tamburini. He died at Nice in 1876, aged 76, notes Sources Ashbrook, William, Donizetti and His Operas, Cambridge University Press,1983. A Biographical Notice of Tamburini, pp. 125–126. The Harmonicon Randel, Don Michael, Tamburini, Antonio, The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music, Harvard University Press,1996. ISBN 0-674-37299-9 Rosselli, John, Singers of Italian Opera, The History of a Profession, Cambridge University Press,1995, ISBN 0-521-42697-9 Works by or about Antonio Tamburini at Internet Archive
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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
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Vincenzo Bellini
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Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer, who was known for his long-flowing melodic lines for which he was named the Swan of Catania. Other sources of information come from correspondence saved by other friends, C Bellini was the quintessential composer of the Italian bel canto era of the early 19th century, and his work has been summed up by the London critic Tim Ashley as. Also hugely influential, as much admired by composers as he was by the public. Verdi raved about his long, long, long melodies, wagner, who rarely liked anyone but himself, was spellbound by Bellinis almost uncanny ability to match music with text and psychology. Liszt and Chopin professed themselves fans, of the 19th-century giants, only Berlioz demurred. Those musicologists who consider Bellini to be merely a melancholic tunesmith are now in the minority, the genuine triumph of I puritani in January 1835 in Paris capped a significant career. Certainly, Capuleti, La sonnambula, Norma, and I puritani are regularly performed today, only nine months later, Bellini died in Puteaux, France at the age of 33. Born in Catania, at the part of the Kingdom of Sicily. His grandfather, Vincenzo Tobia Bellini, had studied at the conservatory in Naples and, in Catania from 1767 forward, had been an organist and teacher, as had Vincenzos father, by the age of five, he could apparently play marvelously. The document states that Bellinis first five pieces were composed when he was just six years old and at seven he was taught Latin, modern languages, rhetoric, and philosophy. Author Herbert Weinstock regards some of these accounts as no more than myths, not being supported from other, additionally, he makes the point in regard to Bellinis apparent knowledge of languages and philosophy, Bellini never became a well-educated man. After 1816, Bellini began living with his grandfather, from whom he received his first music lessons, soon after, the young composer began to write compositions. Among them were the nine Versetti da cantarsi il Venerdi Santo, by 1818, Bellini had independently completed several additional orchestral pieces. He was ready for further study, for well-off students, this would include moving to Naples. While his family wasnt wealthy enough to support that lifestyle, Bellinis growing reputation could not be overlooked and his break came when Stefano Notabartolo, the duca di San Martino e Montalbo and his duchess, became the new intendente of the province of Catania. They encouraged the man to petition the city fathers for a stipend to support his musical studies. This was successfully achieved in May 1819 with unanimous agreement for a pension to allow him to study at the Real Collegio di Musica di San Sebastiano in Naples. The young Bellini was to live in Naples for the eight years
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I puritani
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I puritani is an opera in by Vincenzo Bellini. It was originally written in two acts and later changed to three acts on the advice of Gioachino Rossini, with whom the composer had become friends. Taking from April until its premiere the following January, Bellini had time to ensure that the opera was as close to perfection as possible. In a word, my dear Florimo, it was an unheard of thing, upon his arrival in Paris, Bellini quickly entered into the fashionable world of the Parisian salons, including that run by Princess Belgiojoso whom he had met in Milan. In addition to the writers of the time, among the musical figures which he would have encountered were several Italians such as Michele Carafa and Luigi Cherubini. Thus, for most of the remainder of 1833, Bellinis musical activity was very limited and he pleaded guilty in the letter to Florimo in March 1834 noting that the citys attractions were immense. The contract to write a new opera for the Théâtre-Italien, which was signed in January 1834, in the same letter he tells of working towards finding a subject with the Italian émigré, Count Pepoli, who had not written a libretto before. The chosen source of the libretto was identified as a play performed in Paris only six months before in September 1833. When first shown the play and other subjects by Pepoli, in the opinion of writer William Weaver, it was clearly the heroines madness that attracted the composer. But a month later, he comments to Florimo on what it takes working on the libretto with Pepoli, keeping moving ahead costs me a lot of weariness, he lacks practice which is a great thing. Finally, Bellini stated that he did not want to negotiate with anybody until I see what success my opera will have and this included a proposal from the Opéra-Comique in Paris for a new opera for that company. Pepoli adopts a modern aesthetic agenda, condemning vocal ornamentation as a dilution of dramatic sense and attacking imitation as cheapening musics inherent, quoting Pepoli, Smart continues, for this song the people fight, win, triumph, Europe and the world shouted Liberty. It is beautiful to face death shouting liberty, then she recounts how Bellini reacted to what she describes as Pepoli’s “hotheaded patriotism which appears in librettist’s poetry. Around the middle of April 1834, Bellini became concerned when he learned that Gaetano Donizetti would be composing for the Théâtre-Italien during the season as the one for which he was writing. As it transpired, Bellinis total success and Donizettis moderate one with Marin Faliero was insignificant, throughout his stay in Paris, Bellini had cultivated the older composer and had maintained a friendship with him, I have always adored Rossini, and I succeeded, and happily. Tamed Rossinis hatred, I no longer was frightened and finished work of mine which won me so much honour. Later, the dress rehearsal, he wrote. With rehearsals planned for late December/early January, the dress rehearsal took place on 20 January 1835 and it was attended by all of high society, all the great artists, and everyone most distinguished in Paris were in the theatre, enthusiastic
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Lyceum Theatre, London
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The Lyceum Theatre is a 2, 100-seat West End theatre located in the City of Westminster, on Wellington Street, just off the Strand. The origins of the date to 1765. From 1816 to 1830, it served as The English Opera House, after a fire, the house was rebuilt and reopened on 14 July 1834 to a design by Samuel Beazley. The building was unique in that it has a balcony overhanging the dress circle and it was built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell. The theatre then played opera, adaptations of Charles Dickens novels and James Planchés fairy extravaganzas, from 1871 to 1902, Henry Irving appeared at the theatre in, especially, Shakespeare, usually starring opposite Ellen Terry. In 1904 the theatre was almost completely rebuilt and richly ornamented in Rococo style by Bertie Crewe and it played mostly melodrama over the ensuing decades. The building closed in 1939 and was set to be demolished, but it was saved and converted into a Mecca Ballroom in 1951, styled the Lyceum Ballroom, the Lyceum was closed in 1986 but restored to theatrical use in 1996 by Holohan Architects. Since 1999, the theatre has hosted The Lion King, the building was then leased out for dances and other entertainments, including musical entertainments by Charles Dibdin. Famed actor David Garrick also performed there, in 1794, the composer Samuel Arnold Sr rebuilt the interior of the building, making it into a proper theatre, but through the opposition of the existing patent theatres, he was not granted a patent. Therefore, he leased it to other entertainments again, including Philip Astley and it was also used as a chapel, a concert room, and for the first London exhibition of waxworks displayed by Madame Tussaud in 1802. It staged one of the earliest tableaux vivants, as part of William Dimonds The Peasant Boy in 1811, in 1816, Samuel Arnold rebuilt the house to a design by Beazley and opened it as The English Opera House, but it was destroyed by fire in 1830. The house was famous for hosting the London première of Mozarts opera Così fan tutte, during this period, the Sublime Society of Beef Steaks, which had been founded in 1735 by theatre manager Henry Rich, had its home at the theatre for over 50 years until 1867. The members, who never exceeded twenty-four in number, met every Saturday night to eat beefsteaks, in 1834, the present house opened slightly to the west, with a frontage on Wellington Street, under the name Theatre Royal Lyceum and English Opera House. The theatre was designed by Beazley and cost £40,000. The new house championed English opera rather than the Italian operas that had played earlier in the century, composer John Barnett produced a number of works in the first few years of the theatre, including The Mountain Sylph, credited as the first modern English opera. It was followed by Fair Rosamund in 1837 and Farinelli in 1839, in 1841–43, composer Michael Balfe managed the theatre and produced National Opera here, but the venture was ultimately unsuccessful. For instance, an adaptation of Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit ran for over 100 performances from 1844–45 here, the Lyceum was later managed by Madame Lucia Elizabeth Vestris and Charles James Mathews from 1847–55, who produced James Planchés extravaganzas featuring spectacular stage effects. Their first big success was John Maddison Mortons Box and Cox, tom Taylors adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities, with Dickens himself as consultant, played in 1860, shortly after end of its serialisation and volume publication
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The Four Sons of Aymon
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The story had a European success and echoes of the story are still found today in certain folklore traditions. It is one of the longest of all the chansons de geste, other, later versions of the chanson range from 14,300 to 28,000 verses. Of the dozen extant versions of the chanson, all are anonymous except for one, Histoire des quatre fils Aymon, attributed to Huon de Villeneuve, the tale is generally included in the Doon de Mayence cycle of chansons. Renaud and his three brothers were sons of Aymon de Dordone, at the Pentecostal feast, Aymon brought them to Paris to be presented to the emperor Charlemagne and Renaud proved himself a worthy combattant in the royal tournament and won the emperors favor. In most versions of the chanson, the emperor awarded him with the magical horse Bayard. Unfortunately, Renaud kills one of Charlemagnes nephews in a brawl over a chess game, the brothers decide to hide in the Ardennes where their cousin, the sorcerer Maugis, can help them. Maugis constructs a castle for them called Montessor on a peak overlooking the Meuse, the brothers are, however, forced to flee from Montessor, and eventually they proceed to Gascony to aid the King Yvon his battles against the Emir Begès. Renaud, thanks to his sword Froberge, wins a victory, and as thanks, Charlemagne orders that the magic horse be drowned by chaining it to a stone and throwing it in a river, but the horse escapes and lives forevermore in the woods. Renaud, upon his return from the Crusades, discovers his wife has died and he abandons his home and goes to Cologne, where he becomes a builder on a church. In the end, he is murdered by resentful workers, but his body is saved from the river. Charlemagne is portrayed as vengeful and treacherous in these stories, the sympathy of the storyteller is clearly with the four brothers, but ultimately feudal authority is upheld. He is even angrier about the fact that his warrior-friend Hugh de Narbonne gets nothing at all, in the end Charles adds, Aymons weight in gold and his sister Aye. Aymon is not truly satisfied and swears that he will kill any child born out of his union with the kings sister, Aye rears her four sons in secret at Pierlepont until the day that Aymon tells her how he regrets the fact that they have no offspring. She shows him his sons and Aymon is very impressed with Renaud who is of height, feisty. He gives Renaud the horse Bayard, the horse is so big that it can carry the four brothers on its back. When the four brothers are presented at Charles court in Paris Renaud kills Charles son Louis and they flee to the court of King Loup de Gascogne who betrays them to Charles. They escape their pursuers with the help of King Son of Aquitaine, who gives his daughter Claire or Clarisse to Renaud to wife, Charles attacks the castle and after months of siege Renaud has to surrender. The cost of their survival is the drowning of his horse Bayard, Charles urges Renaud to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem
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Trieste
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Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a strip of Italian territory lying between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city. It is also located near Croatia some further 30 kilometres south, Trieste is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste and throughout history it has been influenced by its location at the crossroads of Latin, Slavic, and Germanic cultures. In 2009, it had a population of about 205,000 and it is the capital of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trieste was one of the oldest parts of the Habsburg Monarchy. In the 19th century, it was the most important port of one of the Great Powers of Europe, as a prosperous seaport in the Mediterranean region, Trieste became the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the fin de siècle period at the end of the 19th century it emerged as an important hub for literature, Trieste underwent an economic revival during the 1930s, and Trieste was an important spot in the struggle between the Eastern and Western blocs after the Second World War. Today, the city is in one of the richest regions of Italy, Roman authors also transliterated the name as Tergestum. Modern names of the city include, Italian, Trieste, Slovene, Trst, German, Triest, Hungarian, Trieszt, Croatian, Trst, Serbian, Трст/Trst, Trieste lies in the northernmost part of the high Adriatic in northeastern Italy, near the border with Slovenia. The city lies on the Gulf of Trieste, built mostly on a hillside that becomes a mountain, Triestes urban territory lies at the foot of an imposing escarpment that comes down abruptly from the Karst Plateau towards the sea. The karst landforms close to the city reach an elevation of 458 metres above sea level and it lies on the borders of the Italian geographical region, the Balkan Peninsula, and the Mitteleuropa. The territory of Trieste is composed of different climate zones depending on the distance from the sea. The average temperatures are 5.4 °C in January and 23.3 °C in July, the climatic setting of the city is humid subtropical climate. On average, humidity levels are low, while only two months receive slightly less than 60 mm of precipitation. Trieste along with the Istrian peninsula has evenly distributed rainfall above 1,000 mm in total, snow occurs on average 0 –2 days per year. Temperatures are very mild - lows below zero are somewhat rare, winter maxima are lower than in typical Mediterranean zone with quite high minima. Summer is very warm with maxima about 28 °C and lows above 20 °C, the absolute maximum of the last fifty years is 37.2 °C in 2003, whereas the absolute minimum is −14.6 °C in 1956. Since the second millennium BC, the location was an inhabited site, originally an Illyrian settlement, the Veneti entered the region in the 10th-9th c. BC and seem to have given the town its name, Tergeste, still later, the town was later captured by the Carni, a tribe of the Eastern Alps, before becoming part of the Roman republic in 177 BC during the Istrian War
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