1.
German language
–
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
German language
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Old Frisian (Alt-Friesisch)
German language
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The widespread popularity of the
Bible translated into German by
Martin Luther helped establish modern German
German language
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Examples of German language in
Namibian everyday life
German language
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German-language newspapers in the U.S. in 1922
2.
Festival
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A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that community and its religion or traditions. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, next to religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. Food is such a resource that many festivals are associated with harvest time. Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere, Festivals often serve to fulfill specific communal purposes, especially in regard to commemoration or thanksgiving. The celebrations offer a sense of belonging for religious, social, or geographical groups and they may also provide entertainment, which was particularly important to local communities before the advent of mass-produced entertainment. In Ancient Greece and Rome, festivals such as the Saturnalia were closely associated with social organisation, in modern times, festivals may be attended by strangers such as tourists, who are attracted to some of the more eccentric or historical ones. The word festival was used as an adjective from the late fourteenth century. In Middle English, a festival dai was a religious holiday and its first recorded used as a noun was in 1589. Feast first came into usage as a noun circa 1200, the term feast is also used in common secular parlance as a synonym for any large or elaborate meal. When used as in the meaning of a festival, most often refers to a religious rather than a film or art festival. In the Philippines and many other former Spanish colonies, the Spanish word fiesta is used to denote a religious feast to honor a patron saint. Many festivals have religious origins and entwine cultural and religious significance in traditional activities, the most important religious festivals such as Christmas, Rosh Hashanah, Diwali, and Eid al-Adha serve to mark out the year. Others, such as harvest festivals, celebrate seasonal change, events of historical significance, such as important military victories or other nation-building events also provide the impetus for a festival. An early example is the established by Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses III celebrating his victory over the Libyans. In many countries, royal holidays commemorate dynastic events just as agricultural holidays are about harvests, there are numerous types of festivals in the world and most countries celebrate important events or traditions with traditional cultural events and activities. Most culminate in the consumption of specially prepared food and they bring people together, Festivals are also strongly associated with national holidays. Lists of national festivals are published to make participation easier, among many religions, a feast is a set of celebrations in honour of Gods or God. A feast and a festival are historically interchangeable, the Sed festival, for example, celebrated the thirtieth year of an Egyptian pharaohs rule and then every three years after that
Festival
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Procession in Honor of Isis depiction of the Egyptian Navigium Isidis festival by
Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1902)
Festival
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Village Feast. Facsimile of a woodcut of the Sandrin ou Verd Galant, facetious work end of 16th century (edition of 1609)
Festival
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A Festival at
Antwerp, 17th century
Festival
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Country Festival in
Swabia
3.
Music
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Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. The common elements of music are pitch, rhythm, dynamics, different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. The word derives from Greek μουσική, Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as the harmony of the spheres and it is music to my ears point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, There is no noise, the creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. There are many types of music, including music, traditional music, art music, music written for religious ceremonies. For example, it can be hard to draw the line between some early 1980s hard rock and heavy metal, within the arts, music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art or as an auditory art. People may make music as a hobby, like a teen playing cello in a youth orchestra, the word derives from Greek μουσική. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the music is derived from mid-13c. Musike, from Old French musique and directly from Latin musica the art of music and this is derived from the. Greek mousike of the Muses, from fem. of mousikos pertaining to the Muses, from Mousa Muse. In classical Greece, any art in which the Muses presided, Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. With the advent of recording, records of popular songs. Some music lovers create mix tapes of their songs, which serve as a self-portrait. An environment consisting solely of what is most ardently loved, amateur musicians can compose or perform music for their own pleasure, and derive their income elsewhere. Professional musicians sometimes work as freelancers or session musicians, seeking contracts and engagements in a variety of settings, There are often many links between amateur and professional musicians. Beginning amateur musicians take lessons with professional musicians, in community settings, advanced amateur musicians perform with professional musicians in a variety of ensembles such as community concert bands and community orchestras. However, there are many cases where a live performance in front of an audience is also recorded and distributed. Live concert recordings are popular in classical music and in popular music forms such as rock, where illegally taped live concerts are prized by music lovers
Music
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A painting on an Ancient Greek vase depicts a music lesson (c. 510 BC).
Music
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Jean-Gabriel Ferlan performing at a 2008 concert at the collège-lycée Saint-François Xavier
Music
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The composer
Michel Richard Delalande, pen in hand.
Music
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Funk places most of its emphasis on rhythm and
groove, with entire songs based around a
vamp on a single chord. Pictured are the influential funk musicians
George Clinton and
Parliament Funkadelic in 2006.
4.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
Austria
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First appearance of the word "ostarrichi", circled in red. Modern Austria honours this document, dated 996, as the founding of the nation.
Austria
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Flag
Austria
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Venus of Willendorf, 28,000 to 25,000 BC.
Museum of Natural History Vienna
Austria
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"Heidentor" – Remains of the
Roman military city of
Carnuntum
5.
Salzburg
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Salzburg is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg. Salzburgs Old Town is internationally renowned for its architecture and is one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, the city has three universities and a large population of students. Tourists also visit Salzburg to tour the historic center and the scenic Alpine surroundings, Salzburg was the birthplace of 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the mid‑20th century, the city was the setting for the musical play, traces of human settlements have been found in the area, dating to the Neolithic Age. The first settlements in Salzburg continuous with the present were apparently by the Celts around the 5th century BC, around 15 BC the Roman Empire merged the settlements into one city. At this time, the city was called Juvavum and was awarded the status of a Roman municipium in 45 AD, Juvavum developed into an important town of the Roman province of Noricum. After the Norican frontiers collapse, Juvavum declined so sharply that by the late 7th century it became a ruin. The Life of Saint Rupert credits the 8th-century saint with the citys rebirth, when Theodo of Bavaria asked Rupert to become bishop c. 700, Rupert reconnoitered the river for the site of his basilica, Rupert chose Juvavum, ordained priests, and annexed the manor Piding. He traveled to evangelise among pagans, the name Salzburg means Salt Castle. The name derives from the barges carrying salt on the Salzach River, the Festung Hohensalzburg, the citys fortress, was built in 1077 by Archbishop Gebhard, who made it his residence. It was greatly expanded during the following centuries, independence from Bavaria was secured in the late 14th century. Salzburg was the seat of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, a prince-bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire, as the reformation movement gained steam, riots broke out among peasants in the areas in and around Salzburg. The city was occupied during the German Peasants War, and the archbishop had to flee to the safety of the fortress It was besieged for three months in 1525. It was in the 17th century that Italian architects rebuilt the city center as it is today along with many palaces,21,475 citizens refused to recant their beliefs and were expelled from Salzburg. Most of them accepted an offer by King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, the rest settled in other Protestant states in Europe and the British colonies in America. In 1772–1803, under archbishop Hieronymus Graf von Colloredo, Salzburg was a centre of late Illuminism, in 1803, the archbishopric was secularised by Emperor Napoleon, he transferred the territory to Ferdinando III of Tuscany, former Grand Duke of Tuscany, as the Electorate of Salzburg
Salzburg
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Salzburg viewed from the
Festung Hohensalzburg
Salzburg
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
Salzburg
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Mozart was born in Salzburg, capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, a former ecclesiastical principality in what is now Austria, then part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
Salzburg
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Salzburg in 1914
6.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Born in Salzburg, he showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood, already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, while visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame, during his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons and he composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, Ludwig van Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote, posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria, née Pertl and this was the capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastic principality in what is now Austria, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy and his elder sister was Maria Anna Mozart, nicknamed Nannerl. Mozart was baptized the day after his birth, at St. Ruperts Cathedral in Salzburg, the baptismal record gives his name in Latinized form, as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He generally called himself Wolfgang Amadè Mozart as an adult, Leopold Mozart, a native of Augsburg, Germany, was a minor composer and an experienced teacher. In 1743, he was appointed as fourth violinist in the establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian. Four years later, he married Anna Maria in Salzburg, Leopold became the orchestras deputy Kapellmeister in 1763. During the year of his sons birth, Leopold published a textbook, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule. When Nannerl was 7, she began lessons with her father. Years later, after her brothers death, she reminisced, He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. In the fourth year of his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and he could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time. At the age of five, he was composing little pieces
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Mozart c. 1780, detail from portrait by
Johann Nepomuk della Croce
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Anonymous portrait of the child Mozart, possibly by
Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni; painted in 1763 on commission from Leopold Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Mozart's birthplace at Getreidegasse 9, Salzburg
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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The Mozart family on tour: Leopold, Wolfgang, and Nannerl. Watercolor by
Carmontelle, ca. 1763
7.
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
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Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal was an Austrian prodigy, a novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist. His great-grandfather, Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal, from whom his family inherited the noble title Edler von Hofmannsthal, was a Jewish merchant ennobled by the Austrian emperor and he began to write poems and plays from an early age. Some of his works were written under pseudonyms, such as Loris Melikow and Theophil Morren. He met the German poet Stefan George at the age of seventeen and had poems published in Georges journal. He studied law and later philology in Vienna but decided to devote himself to writing upon graduating in 1901, along with Peter Altenberg and Arthur Schnitzler, he was a member of the avant garde group Young Vienna. In 1900 Hofmannsthal met the composer Richard Strauss for the first time and he later wrote libretti for several of his operas, including Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier with Harry von Kessler, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Die ägyptische Helena, and Arabella. In 1911 he adapted the 15th century English morality play Everyman as Jedermann, the play later became a staple at the Salzburg Festival. During the First World War Hofmannsthal held a government post and he wrote speeches and articles supporting the war effort, and emphasizing the cultural tradition of Austria-Hungary. The end of the war spelled the end of the old monarchy in Austria, nevertheless, the years after the war were very productive ones for Hofmannsthal, he continued with his earlier literary projects, almost without a break. In 1920, Hofmannsthal, along with Max Reinhardt, founded the Salzburg Festival and his later plays revealed a growing interest in religious, particularly Roman Catholic, themes. Among his writings was a screenplay for a version of Der Rosenkavalier directed by Robert Wiene. In 1901 he married Gertrud Gerty Schlesinger, the daughter of a Viennese banker, Gerty, who was Jewish, converted to Christianity before their marriage. They settled in Rodaun, not far from Vienna, and had three children, Christiane, Franz, and Raimund, on 13 July 1929 his son Franz committed suicide. Two days later, shortly after attending Franzs funeral, Hugo himself died of a stroke at Rodaun and he was buried wearing the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, as he had requested. In early 1929 his daughter Christiane married German indologist, Heinrich Zimmer, who taught at University of Greifswald, Heidelberg University, after they moved to New Rochelle, New York, her husband became a Visiting Lecturer in Philosophy at Columbia University. On 21 January 1933 his son Raimund married Ava Alice Muriel Astor, daughter of John Jacob Astor IV, after divorcing Ava in 1939, Raimund later married Lady Elizabeth Paget. On 18 October 1902 Hofmannsthal published a letter in the Berlin Daily. It was purportedly written in 1603 by Philip, Lord Chandos to Francis Bacon and this letter reflects the growing distrust of and dissatisfaction with language that so characterizes the Modern era, and Chandoss dissolving personality is not only individual but societal
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
–
Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
–
The house where Hofmannsthal was born, at Salesianergasse 12,
Landstraße, Vienna 3
8.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
World War I
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Clockwise from the top: The aftermath of shelling during the
Battle of the Somme,
Mark V tanks cross the
Hindenburg Line,
HMS Irresistible sinks after hitting a
mine in the
Dardanelles, a British
Vickers machine gun crew wears
gas masks during the Battle of the Somme,
Albatros D.III fighters of
Jagdstaffel 11
World War I
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Sarajevo citizens reading a poster with the proclamation of the
Austrian annexation in 1908.
World War I
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This picture is usually associated with the arrest of
Gavrilo Princip, although some believe it depicts Ferdinand Behr, a bystander.
World War I
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Serbian Army
Blériot XI "Oluj", 1915.
9.
Richard Strauss
–
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Strauss was also a prominent conductor in Western Europe and the Americas, enjoying quasi-celebrity status as his compositions became standards of orchestral and operatic repertoire. Strauss was born on 11 June 1864 in Munich, the son of Josephine and Franz Strauss, in his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of six and continued to write music almost until his death, during his boyhood Strauss attended orchestra rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra, where he received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor. In 1872 he started receiving violin instruction at the Royal School of Music from Benno Walter, in 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. The influence of Wagners music on Strausss style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it. Indeed, in the Strauss household, the music of Richard Wagner was viewed with deep suspicion, in later life, Strauss said that he deeply regretted the conservative hostility to Wagners progressive works. Nevertheless, Strausss father undoubtedly had a influence on his sons developing taste. In early 1882 in Vienna he gave the first performance of his Violin Concerto in D minor, playing a piano reduction of the part himself. The same year he entered Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he studied philosophy and art history, Strauss learned the art of conducting by observing Bülow in rehearsal. Bülow was very fond of the man and decided that Strauss should be his successor as conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra when Bülow resigned in 1885. Strausss compositions at time were indebted to the style of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn. 1, Op.11, is representative of this period and is a staple of modern horn repertoire, Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being irascible, garrulous, eccentric and outspoken, throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he preferred the soprano voice to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles. The Strausses had one son, Franz, in 1897, Franz married Alice von Grab-Hermannswörth, daughter of a Jewish industrialist, in a Roman Catholic ceremony in 1924. Franz and Alice had two sons, Richard and Christian, some of Strausss first compositions were solo instrumental and chamber works. After 1890 Strauss composed very infrequently for chamber groups, his energies being almost completely absorbed with large-scale orchestral works and operas. Four of his pieces are actually arrangements of portions of his operas, including the Daphne-Etude for solo violin and the String Sextet
Richard Strauss
–
Richard Strauss, by
Max Liebermann, 1918
Richard Strauss
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Signature of Dr. Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
–
Strauss age 22
Richard Strauss
–
Strauss with his wife and son, 1910
10.
Alfred Roller
–
Alfred Roller was an Austrian painter, graphic designer, and set designer. Roller was born in Brünn, Moravia, in 1897 he co-founded the Viennese Secession with Koloman Moser, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann, Gustav Klimt, and other artists who rejected the prevalent academic style of art. He became a professor of drawing at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 1899, in his early career Roller was very active as a graphic designer and draughtsman. He designed numerous covers and vignettes for the pages the Secessionist periodical Ver Sacrum, as well as the posters for the fourth, fourteenth and he also designed the layout of the exhibitions themselves. In 1902 Roller was introduced to the composer Gustav Mahler by Carl Moll, Roller expressed an interest in stage design and showed Mahler several sketches he had made for Wagners Tristan und Isolde. Mahler was impressed and decided to employ Roller to design the sets for a new production of the piece, the production, which premiered in February 1903, was a great critical success. Roller continued to design sets for Mahlers productions, eventually Roller left the Secession and his teaching post at the Kunstgewerbeschule to be appointed chief stage designer to the Vienna State Opera, a position he held until 1909. He died in Vienna in 1935, W. Greisenegger - E. Lebensaft, Roller Alfred. Vol.9, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7001-1483-4, Alfred Roller, Neubedeutung des szenischen Raumes. Ulrike Krone-Balcke, Roller, Alfred, Neue Deutsche Biographie,22, Berlin, Duncker & Humblot, pp. 13–15, Thursby, Stephen Carlton. “Gustav Mahler, Alfred Roller, and the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk, Tristan and Affinities between the Arts at the Vienna Court Opera. ”Art in Vienna 1898-1918, Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele, and their Contemporaries. Media related to Alfred Roller at Wikimedia Commons Entry for Alfred Roller on the Union List of Artist Names Literature by and about Alfred Roller in the German National Library catalogue
Alfred Roller
–
Alfred Roller (1902), poster for the 14th exhibition of the
Viennese Secession
11.
Franz Schalk
–
Franz Schalk was an Austrian conductor. From 1918 to 1929 he was director of the Vienna State Opera and he was later involved in the establishment of the Salzburg Festival. Born in Vienna, he studied under composer Anton Bruckner, from 1900, he was first kapellmeister of the Vienna Court Opera. Between 1904 and 1921, he was head of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, in 1918 he became director of the Vienna State Opera, but from 1919 shared the directorship with Richard Strauss, with the well-known composer considered blatantly the greater equal of the pair. Tensions resulting from unclear division of responsibility between the two men led to Strausss resignation. Schalks most famous quote is Every theatre is an insane asylum, today, he is best known for his association with Anton Bruckner. He gave the premiere of Bruckners Symphony No.5 in 1894, Schalks version of the Fifth Symphony was the one chosen for first publication, and was the only version heard by audiences for almost forty years. Present-day conductor Leon Botstein is a prominent advocate of Schalks versions of Bruckners music, Schalk was also involved in the early publication of Mahlers Symphony No.10. Schalk gave the premiere of Richard Strausss opera Die Frau ohne Schatten in 1919 and he died in 1931, aged 68. Some of his work as a conductor has been preserved and is available on CD, Schalks elder brother Joseph was also a prominent conductor and musician. Franz Schalk at the aeiou Encyclopedia An article about Bruckner, written from a pro-Schalk viewpoint Available recordings
Franz Schalk
–
Franz Schalk
12.
Max Reinhardt
–
Max Reinhardt was an Austrian-born American theatre and film director, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he is regarded as one of the most prominent directors of German-language theatre in the early 20th century, in 1920, he established the Salzburg Festival with the performance of Hofmannsthals Jedermann. Reinhardt was born Maximilian Goldmann in the spa town of Baden near Vienna, the son of Wilhelm Goldmann, a Jewish merchant from Stomfa, Hungary, having finished school, he began an apprenticeship at a bank, but already took acting lessons. In 1890, he gave his debut on a stage in Vienna with the artists name Max Reinhardt. In 1893 he performed at the re-opened Salzburg City Theatre and one later joined the Deutsches Theater ensemble under director Otto Brahm in Berlin. In 1901, Reinhardt together with Friedrich Kayßler and several other colleagues founded the Schall und Rauch Kabarett stage in Berlin. Re-opened as Kleines Theater it was the first of numerous stages, from 1903 to 1905, he managed the Neues Theater and in 1906 acquired the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. In 1911, he premiered with Karl Vollmöllers The Miracle at Olympia, by employing powerful staging techniques, and harmonising stage design, language, music and choreography, Reinhardt introduced new dimensions into German theatre. The Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, which is arguably the most important German-language acting school, was installed implementing his ideas, in 1910, Siegfried Jacobsen wrote his book entitled Max Reinhardt. In 1914, he was persuaded to sign the Manifesto of the Ninety-Three and he was signatory 66, he later expressed regret at signing. By 1930, he ran 11 stages in Berlin and, in addition, in the United States, he successfully directed The Miracle in 1924, and a popular stage version of Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream in 1927. Reinhardt followed that success by directing a film version in 1935 using a different cast. Mickey Rooney and Olivia de Havilland had also appeared in Reinhardts 1934 stage production, the Nazis banned the film because of the Jewish ancestry of both Reinhardt and Felix Mendelssohn, whose music was used throughout the film. After the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi-governed Germany in 1938, he emigrated first to Britain, Reinhardt opened the Reinhardt School of the Theatre in Hollywood, on Sunset Boulevard. Several notable stars of the day received classical training, among them actress Nanette Fabray. In 1940, he became a citizen of the United States. At that time, he was married to his wife, actress Helene Thimig. Compared with most of his contemporaries, Reinhardt was more interested in film than in theater and he made films as a director and from time to time also as a producer
Max Reinhardt
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Reinhardt in 1911, photograph by
Nicola Perscheid
Max Reinhardt
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Max Reinhardt is filmed in his garden, 1930.
Max Reinhardt
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Max Reinhardt signing a contract with the US film producer Curtis Melnitz in Berlin, 1930
13.
Berlin
–
Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
14.
Salzburg Cathedral
–
Salzburg Cathedral is the seventeenth-century Baroque cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Salzburg in the city of Salzburg, Austria, dedicated to Saint Rupert and Saint Vergilius. Saint Rupert founded the church in 774 on the remnants of a Roman town, in the seventeenth century, the cathedral was completely rebuilt in the Baroque style under Prince-Bishop Wolf Dietrich Raitenau to its present appearance. Salzburg Cathedral still contains the font in which composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was baptized. Saint Vergilius of Salzburg constructed the first cathedral possibly using the foundations of St. Rupert, the first Dom was recorded in 774. The so-called Virgil Dom was built from 767 to 774 and was 66 metres long and 33 metres wide, Archbishop Arno arranged the first renovations of the Dom, less than 70 years after its completion. In 842, the building burned after a lightning strike, three years later, work began to rebuild the structure. Under Archbishop Hartwig, the sanctuary expanded to the west with addition of a choir, Archbishop Konrad I added the west towers from 1106 to 1147. This original church thus experienced at least three extensive building and rebuilding campaigns during the early Middle Ages, the result of which was a somewhat ad hoc Romanesque basilica. In 1598, the basilica was damaged, and after several failed attempts at restoration and reconstruction. Wolf Dietrich was a patron and supporter of modern Italian Baroque architecture, indeed, it was Wolf Dietrich who was also responsible for the building of the nearby Alten Residenz, which is today connected to the cathedral. Wolf Dietrich hired the Italian architect Vincenzo Scamozzi to prepare a plan for a comprehensive new Baroque building, construction did not begin however until Wolf Dietrichs successor, Mark Sittich von Hohenems, in 1614 laid the cornerstone of the new cathedral. Santino Solari designed the current cathedral by dramatically altering the original Scamozzi plan, the new sanctuary was completed 1628, less than 15 years after construction began. At its consecration on September 24,1628,12 choirs positioned in the galleries of the cathedral sang a Te Deum composed by Stefano Bernardi. The present Salzburg Cathedral is built partially upon the foundations of the old basilica, one other surviving relic that predates the baroque edifice is the 14th Century Gothic baptismal font. The relics of Saint Rupert were transferred here when the cathedral was completed, the finished church is 142 meters long and 33 meters high at the crossing/dome. The baroque style of St. Ruperts can be seen in the choir, the Salzburg Cathedral was damaged during World War II when a single bomb crashed through the central dome over the crossing. Repairs were somewhat slow to place, but restoration was complete by 1959. Salzburg Cathedral is located adjacent to Residenzplatz and Domplatz in the Altstadt area of the city, the Domplatz is accessed by three open arcade arches in the north, south, and west
Salzburg Cathedral
–
Salzburg Cathedral
Salzburg Cathedral
Salzburg Cathedral
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Salzburg Cathedral from the Hohensalzburg fortress
Salzburg Cathedral
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Marian column in front of the cathedral
15.
Alexander Moissi
–
Aleksandër Moisiu was an Albanian stage actor. Moissi was born in Trieste to Moisi Moisiu from Kavajë, who was a rich Albanian merchant of oil and wheat, after an international childhood in Trieste, Durrës and Graz, the 20-year-old Aleksandër settled with his mother and two sisters in Vienna. He began vocal studies and applied for a training at the k. k. Hofburgtheater, but was rejected due to his strong Italian accent and had to himself to non-speaking roles. It was his performance in Molières Tartuffe of the Burgtheater 1899/1900 season, with Kainz encouragement and support, Moissis career as one of the great European stage actors of the early-20th century began. Moissi and the Reinhardt ensemble toured the Russia in 1911 and was acclaimed in Saint Petersburg by critic, traveling across Europe and the Americas, his most famous role was Fedya in Tolstoys The Living Corpse — performed more than 1400 times by him. In 1914, Moisiu acquired German citizenship to become a volunteer in World War I, in 1920 he played the leading part in the first performance of Hugo von Hofmannsthals Jedermann adaption of The Somonyng of Everyman at the Salzburg Festival. However, Moissi did not keep up with the German Expressionist and epic theatre movement initiated by directors like Erwin Piscator and he finally left Germany after the Nazi Machtergreifung in 1933 and was offered Albanian citizenship by King Zog. Alexander Moissi died of pneumonia on 22 or 23 March 1935, in Berlin, Moissi was acclaimed for his 1906 performance of Oswald in Ibsens Ghosts and in the premiere of Wedekinds Spring Awakening. His interpretations in the roles of Hamlet, Œdipus, Faust. Beside the Deutsches Theater, he performed at the Vienna Volkstheater, though primarily a stage actor, he appeared in ten film productions from 1910 to 1935, of which seven were silent, most notably in The Student of Prague. Streets are named after Alexander Moissi in Berlin, Salzburg and Vienna, in Albania he is highly venerated as a most important national actor. In his honour, the school of the Academy of Music and Arts in Tirana as well as the university. In his fathers hometown of Kavajë, the main public high-school, the 60th anniversary of his death was remembered in Albania in 1995 with an Artistic Year dedicated to him, it was sponsored by the Aleksandër Moisiu Foundation. Spiro Moisiu and Alfred Moisiu are direct relatives of Alexander Moissi. Moissi was married twice, His first marriage was to Maria Moissi who was from Vienna and she founded the drama school Schauspielschule Maria Moissi Berlin where her husband also taught. They had one daughter, Beate Moissi, Alexander Moissi had another daughter with Herta Hambach, Bettina would later marry the Jewish American art collector Heinz Berggruen in 1959. One of their two children, Nicolas Berggruen, is a financier and art collector, while the other, Olivier, is an art historian
Alexander Moissi
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Aleksandër Moisiu in 1906
Alexander Moissi
–
Moissi as Prince Kalaf in Gozzi's
Turandot, Deutsches Theater, Berlin, December 1911
Alexander Moissi
–
Moissi's grave, Morcote cemetery
16.
Chamber music
–
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a number of performers. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances, because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as the music of friends. Playing chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, that differ from the skills required for playing solo or symphonic works, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described chamber music as four rational people conversing. The analogy to conversation recurs in descriptions and analyses of chamber music compositions, from its earliest beginnings in the Medieval period to the present, chamber music has been a reflection of the changes in the technology and the society that produced it. During the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, instruments were used primarily as accompaniment for singers, String players would play along with the melody line sung by the singer. There were also purely instrumental ensembles, often of stringed precursors of the violin family, some analysts consider the origin of classical instrumental ensembles to be the sonata da camera and the sonata da chiesa. These were compositions for one to five or more instruments, the sonata da camera was a suite of slow and fast movements, interspersed with dance tunes, the sonata da chiesa was the same, but the dances were omitted. These forms gradually developed into the trio sonata of the Baroque – two treble instruments and an instrument, often with a keyboard or other chording instrument filling in the harmony. Both the bass instrument and the instrument would play the basso continuo part. During the Baroque period, chamber music as a genre was not clearly defined, often, works could be played on any variety of instruments, in orchestral or chamber ensembles. The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, sometimes composers mixed movements for chamber ensembles with orchestral movements. Telemanns Tafelmusik, for example, has five sets of movements for various combinations of instruments, Baroque chamber music was often contrapuntal, that is, each instrument played the same melodic materials at different times, creating a complex, interwoven fabric of sound. Because each instrument was playing essentially the same melodies, all the instruments were equal, in the trio sonata, there is often no ascendent or solo instrument, but all three instruments share equal importance. In the second half of the 18th century, tastes began to change, many preferred a new, lighter Galant style. And clearly defined melody and bass to the complexities of counterpoint, now a new custom arose that gave birth to a new form of chamber music, the serenade. Patrons invited street musicians to play evening concerts below the balconies of their homes, their friends, patrons and musicians commissioned composers to write suitable suites of dances and tunes, for groups of two to five or six players. These works were called serenades, nocturnes, divertimenti, or cassations, the young Joseph Haydn was commissioned to write several of these
Chamber music
–
Frederick the Great plays flute in his summer palace
Sanssouci, with
Franz Benda playing violin,
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach accompanying on keyboard, and unidentified string players; painting by
Adolph Menzel (1850–52)
Chamber music
–
Plato,
Aristotle,
Hippocrates and
Galen play a quartet on viols in this fanciful woodcut from 1516.
Chamber music
–
Baroque musicians playing a trio sonata, 18th century anonymous painting
Chamber music
–
Score of Joseph Haydn's Op. 20, No. 4, showing conversational mode.
17.
Orchestra
–
The term orchestra derives from the Greek ὀρχήστρα, the name for the area in front of a stage in ancient Greek theatre reserved for the Greek chorus. A full-size orchestra may sometimes be called an orchestra or philharmonic orchestra. The actual number of employed in a given performance may vary from seventy to over one hundred musicians, depending on the work being played. The term chamber orchestra usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles of about fifty musicians or fewer, the typical orchestra grew in size throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching a peak with the large orchestras called for in the works of Richard Wagner, and later, Gustav Mahler. Orchestras are usually led by a conductor who directs the performance with movements of the hands and arms, the conductor unifies the orchestra, sets the tempo and shapes the sound of the ensemble. The first violin, commonly called the concertmaster, also plays an important role in leading the musicians, the typical symphony orchestra consists of four groups of related musical instruments called the woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings. The orchestra, depending on the size, contains almost all of the instruments in each group. Chamber orchestra usually refers to smaller-sized ensembles, a chamber orchestra might employ as many as fifty musicians. The term concert orchestra may also be used, as in the BBC Concert Orchestra, the so-called standard complement of doubled winds and brass in the orchestra from the first half of the 19th century is generally attributed to the forces called for by Beethoven. The composers instrumentation almost always included paired flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, the exceptions to this are his Symphony No. 4, Violin Concerto, and Piano Concerto No,4, which each specify a single flute. Beethoven carefully calculated the expansion of this particular timbral palette in Symphonies 3,5,6, the third horn in the Eroica Symphony arrives to provide not only some harmonic flexibility, but also the effect of choral brass in the Trio movement. Piccolo, contrabassoon, and trombones add to the finale of his Symphony No.5. A piccolo and a pair of trombones help deliver the effect of storm and sunshine in the Sixth, for several decades after his death, symphonic instrumentation was faithful to Beethovens well-established model, with few exceptions. Apart from the core orchestral complement, various instruments are called for occasionally. These include the guitar, heckelphone, flugelhorn, cornet, harpsichord. Saxophones, for example, appear in some 19th- through 21st-century scores.6 and 9 and William Waltons Belshazzars Feast, and many other works as a member of the orchestral ensemble. The euphonium is featured in a few late Romantic and 20th-century works, usually playing parts marked tenor tuba, including Gustav Holsts The Planets, cornets appear in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys ballet Swan Lake, Claude Debussys La Mer, and several orchestral works by Hector Berlioz
Orchestra
–
The Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra.
Orchestra
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Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra
Orchestra
–
Göttinger Symphonie Orchester
Orchestra
–
A modern orchestra concert hall: Philharmony in
Szczecin, Poland
18.
Mozart
–
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Born in Salzburg, he showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood, already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, while visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame, during his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons and he composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, Ludwig van Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote, posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria, née Pertl and this was the capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastic principality in what is now Austria, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy and his elder sister was Maria Anna Mozart, nicknamed Nannerl. Mozart was baptized the day after his birth, at St. Ruperts Cathedral in Salzburg, the baptismal record gives his name in Latinized form, as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He generally called himself Wolfgang Amadè Mozart as an adult, Leopold Mozart, a native of Augsburg, Germany, was a minor composer and an experienced teacher. In 1743, he was appointed as fourth violinist in the establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian. Four years later, he married Anna Maria in Salzburg, Leopold became the orchestras deputy Kapellmeister in 1763. During the year of his sons birth, Leopold published a textbook, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule. When Nannerl was 7, she began lessons with her father. Years later, after her brothers death, she reminisced, He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. In the fourth year of his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and he could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time. At the age of five, he was composing little pieces
Mozart
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Mozart c. 1780, detail from portrait by
Johann Nepomuk della Croce
Mozart
–
Anonymous portrait of the child Mozart, possibly by
Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni; painted in 1763 on commission from Leopold Mozart
Mozart
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Mozart's birthplace at Getreidegasse 9, Salzburg
Mozart
–
The Mozart family on tour: Leopold, Wolfgang, and Nannerl. Watercolor by
Carmontelle, ca. 1763
19.
Don Giovanni
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Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It is based on the legends of Don Juan, a fictional libertine and it was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the National Theater, now called the Estates Theatre, on 29 October 1787. Da Pontes libretto was billed as a dramma giocoso, a designation of its time that denotes a mixing of serious. Mozart entered the work into his catalogue as an opera buffa, although sometimes classified as comic, it blends comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements. A staple of the operatic repertoire, Don Giovanni for the five seasons 2011/12 through 2015/16 was ninth on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide. It has also proved a fruitful subject for writers and philosophers, the opera was commissioned as a result of the overwhelming success of Mozarts trip to Prague in January and February 1787. The subject matter may have chosen in consideration of the long history of Don Juan operas in Prague. For Bertati, the setting was Villena, Spain, whereas Da Pontes libretto only specifies a city in Spain, the score was completed on 28 or 29 October 1787 after Da Ponte was recalled to Vienna to work on another opera. Reports about the completion of the overture conflict, some say it was completed the day before the premiere. More likely it was completed the day before, in light of the fact that Mozart recorded the completion of the opera on 28 October. The score calls for double woodwinds, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, basso continuo for the recitatives, and the string section. The composer also specified occasional special musical effects, in act 2, Giovanni is seen to play the mandolin, accompanied by pizzicato strings. In the same act, two of the Commendatores interventions are accompanied by a chorale of oboes, clarinets, bassoons. The instrumentation and vocal writing are very reminiscent of Mozarts treatment of the voice of Neptune in Idomeneo, the opera was first performed on 29 October 1787 in Prague under its full title of Il Dissoluto Punito ossia il Don Giovanni – Dramma giocoso in due atti. The work was received, as was often true of Mozarts work in Prague. The Prager Oberpostamtzeitung reported, Connoisseurs and musicians say that Prague has never heard the like, the Provincialnachrichten of Vienna reported, Herr Mozart conducted in person and was welcomed joyously and jubilantly by the numerous gathering. Mozart also supervised the Vienna premiere of the work, which place on 7 May 1788. These cuts are very seldom performed in theatres or recordings, the operas final ensemble was generally omitted until the early 20th century, a tradition that apparently began very early on
Don Giovanni
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Portrait of
Francisco D'Andrade in the title role by
Max Slevogt, 1912
Don Giovanni
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Original playbill for the Vienna premiere of Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
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Ildebrando D'Arcangelo as Don Giovanni,
Salzburg Festival 2014
Don Giovanni
–
Luigi Bassi in the title role of Don Giovanni in 1787
20.
Wiener Staatsoper
–
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria and it was originally called the Vienna Court Opera. In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian Republic, the members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited from its orchestra. The opera house was the first major building on the Vienna Ringstrasse commissioned by the Viennese city expansion fund, work commenced on the house in 1861 and was completed in 1869, following plans drawn up by architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll. It was built in the Neo-Renaissance style by the renowned Czech architect, the somewhat coarser-grained Kelheimerstein was intended as the main stone to be used in the building of the opera house, but the necessary quantity was not deliverable. Breitenbrunner stone was suggested as a substitute for the Kelheimer stone, the staircases were constructed from polished Kaiserstein, while most of the rest of the interior was decorated with varieties of marble. The decision was made to use dimension stone for the exterior of the building, due to the monumental demand for stone, stone from Sóskút, widely used in Budapest, was also used. Three Viennese masonry companies were employed to supply enough masonry labour, Eduard Hauser, Anton Wasserburger, the foundation stone was laid on 20 May 1863. The building was, however, not very popular with the public, on the one hand, it did not seem as grand as the Heinrichshof, a private residence which was destroyed in World War II. Eduard van der Nüll committed suicide, and barely ten weeks later Sicardsburg died from tuberculosis so neither architect saw the completion of the building, the opening premiere was Don Giovanni, by Mozart, on May 25,1869. Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Elisabeth were present, towards the end of World War II, on March 12,1945, the opera was set alight by an American bombardment. The front section, which had been walled off as a precaution, remained intact including the foyer, with frescoes by Moritz von Schwind, the stairways, the vestibule. The auditorium and stage were, however, destroyed by flames as well as almost the entire décor, the State Opera was temporarily housed at the Theater an der Wien and at the Vienna Volksoper. Eventually the decision was made to rebuild the house as it had been. The Austrian Federal Chancellor Leopold Figl made the decision in 1946 to have an opera house again by 1949. An architectural competition was announced, which was won by Erich Boltenstern, in order to achieve a good acoustic, wood was the favoured building material, at the advice of, among others, Arturo Toscanini. In addition, the number of seats in the parterre was reduced, and the fourth gallery, the façade, entrance hall and the Schwind foyer were restored and remain in their original style. In 1947, the company went on tour to London, due to the appalling conditions at Theater an der Wien, the opera company leadership tried to raise significant quantities of money to speed up reconstruction of the original opera house
Wiener Staatsoper
–
Vienna State Opera
Wiener Staatsoper
–
Vienna State Opera at night
Wiener Staatsoper
–
Marble staircase sweeps up from the main entrance to the first floor
Wiener Staatsoper
–
Inside one of the halls
21.
Richard Tauber
–
Richard Tauber was an Austrian tenor. After he was adopted by his father in 1913, his name became Richard Denemy-Tauber. Richard accompanied his mother on tour to theatres, but she found it difficult to cope. In 1897–98 he was sent to school in Linz, and then his father took over his upbringing, moving him to Graz, Prague, Berlin, Salzburg and finally Wiesbaden. His father, who was born Jewish but had converted to Roman Catholicism, the boy missed the excitement of the theatre and instead joined his father in Prague and, subsequently, in 1903 at the theatre in Wiesbaden. Richard hoped to become a singer but failed to any of the teachers he auditioned for, probably because he chose to sing Wagner. His father entered him at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt to study piano, composition and he made rapid progress but he still hoped to become a singer. After an intensive period of training under Carl Beines, he made his public debut at a concert at Freiburg on 17 May 1912. That year his father was appointed Intendant of the Municipal Theatre in Chemnitz and was therefore in a position to arrange for Richard to appear as Tamino in The Magic Flute on 2 March 1913, the Baron encouraged Tauber to take small roles with other companies to broaden his experience. People started to call him the SOS Tenor, following some guest appearances at the Wiener Volksoper in 1920, he made his Vienna State Opera debut on 16 June in La bohème, substituting for an indisposed Alfred Piccaver. It was in June 1919 that he made the first of seven hundred gramophone records. All his vocal recordings were made for the Odeon Records label, Tauber had a lyrical, flexible tenor voice, and he sang with a warm, elegant legato. His excellent breath control gave him a wonderful head voice and messa di voce with a superb pianissimo. He was elegant in appearance too – although he had a slight squint in his eye, he disguised it by wearing a monocle which. Tauber first performed in an operetta by Franz Lehár at the Volksbuhne in Berlin in 1920 and this was Zigeunerliebe, in which he also appeared in Linz and Salzburg in 1921. In 1922 he was offered the role of Armand in Lehárs Frasquita at the Theater an der Wien, and this excursion into operetta was looked down on by some, but did Tauber no harm. It gave him a new audience. It revived Lehárs flagging career as a composer of operetta, the hit songs usually occurred in the second act and were informally known as Tauberlieder. Tauber appeared in a number of films, both in Germany and later in England and he provided a voice-over, singing the title song in the otherwise silent film I Kiss Your Hand, Madame
Richard Tauber
–
Richard Tauber on a
cigarette card
Richard Tauber
–
Richard Tauber and Carlotta Vanconti, c. 1928
Richard Tauber
–
Gravestone, Brompton Cemetery, London
22.
Felsenreitschule
–
The Felsenreitschule is a theatre in Austria and a venue of the Salzburg Festival. It was built in 1693 under Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun and it was used as the archbishops summer riding school and for animal hunts. The audience took place in the 96 arcade space that is created above the three floors. Since 1926, the Felsenreitschule has been used for performances of the Salzburger Festspiele, the former audience arcades serve as a natural stage setting. The first production was Carlo Goldonis The Servant of Two Masters, in 1933, Clemens Holzmeister designed for Max Reinhardt the Faust Town, a multiple-stage setting for Reinhardts legendary production of Goethes Faust. In 1948 Herbert von Karajan used the Felsenreitschule for the first time as a stage for performances of Christoph Willibald Glucks Orfeo ed Euridice. This was followed in 1949 by the premiere of Carl Orffs setting of the ancient tragedy Antigone by Sophocles, translated into German by Friedrich Hölderlin, conducted by Ferenc Fricsay. In the years 1968-1970, the Felsenreitschule was remodeled according to plans by Clemens Holzmeister and was inaugurated with Ludwig van Beethovens Fidelio under the baton of Karl Böhm, the stage has a width of 40 metres, and 4 metres understage. Also renovated was the cantilevered grandstand with the underlying scene dock, a light-tight, rain tarp to dampen the noise and protect the stage was also added. The theater holds 1412 seats and 25 standing places, between the summers of 2010 and 2011 festival, the roof was renewed, The new design added 700 square metres of floor space for equipment and rehearsal rooms. The new pitched roof consists of three mobile segment surfaces and is on five telescopic arms and can be extended and retracted in six minutes, suspension points on telescopic supports for stage equipment, improved sound and heat insulation, and two lighting bridges optimize the action on stage. The Felsenreitschule shares its foyer with the Small Festival Hall, the Felsenreitschule was used as a location in the 1965 film version of The Sound of Music. It is the site of the festival from which the von Trapp family disappear
Felsenreitschule
–
References [edit]
Felsenreitschule
23.
Archbishopric of Salzburg
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The Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical principality and state of the Holy Roman Empire. It comprised the territory ruled by the Archbishops of Salzburg. The capital of the archbishopric was Salzburg, the former Roman city of Iuvavum, from the late 13th century onwards, the archbishops gradually reached the status of Imperial immediacy and independence from the Bavarian dukes. Salzburg remained a principality until its secularisation to the short-lived Electorate of Salzburg in 1803. The last prince-archbishop exercising secular authority was Count Hieronymus von Colloredo, the bishoprics territory was roughly congruent with the present-day Austrian state of Salzburg. It stretched along the Salzach river from the High Tauern range—Mt, großvenediger at 3,666 m —at the main chain of the Alps in the south down to the Alpine foothills in the north. Here it also comprised the present-day Rupertiwinkel on the shore of the Salzach. In the southeast, Salzburg adjoined the Duchy of Styria, also ruled by the Habsburg dukes in personal union since 1192. By 1335, the Austrian regents had also acquired the old Duchy of Carinthia in the south, the Habsburg encirclement was nearly completed, when in 1363 the archdukes also attained the County of Tyrol in the west. Very little is known of the bishopric during the Migration Period. In his conflict with the Rugii tribes, Odoacer had his brother Onoulphus evacuate the Noricum ripense province in 487/88, whereby Iuvavum was abandoned, Saint Severinus had already died in 482 in the castrum of Favianis, six years before the departure of the Roman legions from the region. After erecting a church at nearby Seekirchen he discovered the ruins of Iuvavum overgrown with brambles and remnants of the Romance population, the former theory that he arrived already in c. In either case, it was not until after 700 that Christian civilisation re-emerged in the region, Rupert established a monastery dedicated to Saint Peter at the site of a Late Antique church in former Iuvavum. In 711 Rupert also founded the Cella Maximiliana in the Pongau region and his niece Erentrude established a Bendictine nunnery at nearby Nonnberg about 713. In 739 Archbishop Boniface, with the blessing of Pope Gregory III, completed the work of Saint Rupert and raised Salzburg to a bishopric, St. Vergilius, abbot of St. Peters since about 749, had quarrelled with St. Boniface over the existence of antipodes. He nevertheless became bishop about 767, had the first cathedral erected in 774, monasteries were founded and all of Carinthia was slowly Christianised. While Arno was in Rome attending to some of Charlemagnes business in 798, when the dispute over the ecclesiastical border between Salzburg and the Patriarchate of Aquileia broke out, Charlemagne declared the Drava to be the border. Arno also began the copying of 150 volumes from the court of Charlemagne, Archbishop Adalwin suffered great troubles when King Rastislav of Moravia attempted to remove his realm from the ecclesiastical influence of East Francia
Archbishopric of Salzburg
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Rupert of Salzburg with salt barrel, mediæval depiction
Archbishopric of Salzburg
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Salzburg territory (violet) in 1789, between
Bavarian (green) and
Habsburg (orange) lands
Archbishopric of Salzburg
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Archbishopric of Salzburg, c. 1715
24.
Clemens Holzmeister
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Clemens Holzmeister was a prominent Austrian architect and stage designer of the early twentieth century. The Austrian Academy of Fine Arts listed his lifes work as containing 673 projects and he was the father of Judith Holzmeister. Holzmeister was born in the village of Fulpmes in the Tyrol state of Austria and he married with Judith Bridarolli in 1913 in Innsbruck. In 1914 His son Guido was born in Vienna and he attended the Vienna University of Technology and earned a doctorate in architecture in 1919. His daughter Judith Holzmeister was born in Innsbruck in 1920, after submitting a prize-winning design, he became the Head of the Architecture Department of Austrias Academy of Fine Arts in 1924. In 1926 he oversaw the remodelling of the Festival Theatre in Salzburg, then spent several years erecting government buildings in Ankara, in 1931 Holzmeister became the Director of the Austrian Academy of Fine Arts. Besides building projects in Austria, Germany and Turkey, he remained the Director of the Academy until being removed from this post during the Anschluss by the new German government in 1938. He remained in Turkey until 1954, then returned to Austria and his body of work includes a large number of public and semi-public buildings and churches. He developed a new interpretation of local building traditions between simplicity and expressiveness. He also built monuments and scenery, Holzmeister repeatedly worked as a stage designer beginning in the 1930s in collaboration with Max Reinhardt for whom he created the Faust-City for the Salzburg Festival. In the 1950s Holzmeister returned to design and again worked for the Salzburg Festival as well as the Vienna State Opera. Holzmeisters stage designs always respected the requirements of stage productions but never concealed the architectonic background of their creator and he is buried in St. Peters Cemetery in Salzburg
Clemens Holzmeister
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The Leopold-Figl-Warte, one of his works.
Clemens Holzmeister
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The third and current Grand National Assembly of Turkey building in Ankara was designed by Clemens Holzmeister in 1938.
25.
Carlo Gozzi
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Carlo, Count Gozzi was an Italian playwright and defender of Commedia dellArte. Gozzi was born and died in Venice, he came from an family of minor Venetian aristocracy, at a young age, his parents were no longer able to support him financially, so he joined the army in Dalmatia. Three years later, he had returned to Venice and joined the Granelleschi Society, pietro Chiari and Carlo Goldoni, two Venetian writers, were moving away from the old style of Italian theatre, which threatened the work of the Granelleschi Society. While some have called Gozzi the savior of Commedia dellArte there has been much debate due to the fact that Gozzi wrote out all his scripts and these were hugely popular, but after Sacchis company disbanded, they were unjustly neglected. Gozzis fairy tales drew influence from Commedia dellArte, and the popularity of them caused a revival of Commedia dellArte in Italy, Gozzi was acclaimed throughout most of Europe, but was less esteemed in his own country. In the last years of Gozzis life he had begun to experiment by producing tragedies with largely comical influences and he then began to work in Spanish drama, and found minor success before his death. He was buried in the church of San Cassiano in Venice and his brother, Gasparo Gozzi, was also a well-known writer of the time. His collected works were published under his own superintendence at Venice in 1792, a number of twentieth-century stage works were inspired by Gozzis plays. org This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. Works by Carlo Gozzi at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Carlo Gozzi at Internet Archive
Carlo Gozzi
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Portrait of Carlo Gozzi
Carlo Gozzi
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Gozzi's Princess Turandot, 1922 performance by the Russian theater director
Yevgeny Vakhtangov
26.
Turandot (Gozzi)
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Turandot is a commedia dellarte play by Carlo Gozzi after a supposedly Persian story from the collection Les Mille et un jours by François Pétis de la Croix. Gozzis Turandot was first performed at the Teatro San Samuele, Venice, Turandot was deliberately written in the Commedia delarte style by Gozzi, as part of a campaign in his literary war against the bourgeois, realistic works of Pietro Chiari and Carlo Goldoni. Gozzi was intimate with the out-of work theatre troupe of Antonio Sacchi and it was first performed by Sacchis troupe at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice on 22 January 1762, and received seven subsequent performances. The choice of theatre itself was an attack on Goldoni. In the end, Gozzi won his war, according to his Memoirs. Goldoni went to Paris, to seek his fortune there, whereof we shall be informed in his Memoirs. The poet and playwright Friedrich Werthes made a translation of Gozzis complete plays, Schillers Turandot is partly based on Werthes version. In 1801 Friedrich Schiller translated Gozzis Commedia delarte play, at the same time re-interpreting it in the Romantic style and it was first produced in 1802 by at the old Weimar Hoftheater by Johann von Goethe, who had been the theatres director since its inception in 1791. Schiller had begun a friendship with Goethe in 1794 which lasted until Schillers death in 1805, after which Goethe forsook ballads. Comparison of Gozzis and Schillers versions Gozzis play has a light, Gozzi, although he also uses both elements of drama and comedy, puts them side by side as independent parts, Schiller combines them and makes them the result of each other. This interaction of dramatic and comical, their interdependence and the fact of their being equally matched, Gozzis main character, the princess Turandot, seems to act out of a mood and cruelty whereas Schillers Turandot is a person who resolutely follows her moral and ethical attitude. Also prince Calàf, who is a kind of lost soul and philanderer in Gozzis version, becomes a lover who surrenders to his deep. Carl Maria von Weber based his 1805 Chinese Ouverture on a Chinese theme found in Jean-Jacques Rousseaus Dictionnaire de musique, the result was his 1809 Incidental music for Turandot, J.37 which incorporated the Chinese Ouverture. Franz Danzi later wrote his own singspiel Turandot based on Schiller in 1816, the lawyer and composer Johann Vesque von Püttlingen was a friend of Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn. Born in the Lubomirski Palace, near Lublin, West Galicia, he grew up in Vienna and trained as a lawyer, rising to section director in the Austrian Foreign Ministry under Metternich. Under the pseudonym J. Hoven he composed over 300 songs and 8 operas, among which was Turandot, Princess of Shiraz, libretto after Schiller, Schillers play was re-translated into Italian by his friend Andrea Maffei in 1863. Antonio Bazzinis opera Turanda, with a libretto by Antonio Gazzoletti, was first performed at La Scala, bazzini later taught composition to Giacomo Puccini and Pietro Mascagni at the Milan Conservatory. A free English translation from Schiller by Sabilla Novello was published in 1872, after reading Gozzis play, Ferruccio Busoni began sketching out some incidental music to accompany it
Turandot (Gozzi)
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Turandot, 1859
steelpoint engraving by Arthur von Ramberg, from a collection of characters from
Schiller.
Turandot (Gozzi)
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Yevgeny Vakhtangov 's production of Turandot in 1922.
Turandot (Gozzi)
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Painting of the Teatro San Samuele by Gabriel Bella (1730-1799)
Turandot (Gozzi)
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The old Weimar Hoftheater in 1800
27.
ORF (broadcaster)
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Österreichischer Rundfunk is the Austrian national public service broadcaster. Funded from a combination of television licence fee revenue and limited on-air advertising, austria was the last country in continental Europe after Albania to allow nationwide private television broadcasting. September 2, it aired a first broadcast address by Austrian President Michael Hainisch, one year later, a powerful transmitter, designed by the German Telefunken company, was installed on the roof of the former War Ministry building on Ringstraße in central Vienna. Regular transmissions began on 1 October 1924 from provisional studios inside the War Ministry building that were to become known as Radio Wien, by the end of October 1924 it already had 30,000 listeners, and by January 1925100,000. Relay transmitters, established across the country by 1934, ensured that all Austrians could listen to Radio Wien at a fee of two schillings. Radio programmes aimed at an audience, featuring classical music, literature. First live radio broadcasts aired in 1925, transmitted from the Vienna State Opera, on the other hand, news broadcasts only played a minor part out of deference to the Austrian press and the neutralism policy of the federal government. Nevertheless, also regular sportcasts began 1928 and in 1930 the Austrian legislative election was comprehensively covered, at that time, RAVAG registered about 500,000 listeners, having become a mass medium. One of the last RAVAG transmissions was Schuschniggs farewell address on March 11, in 1939, the former RAVAG transmission facilities were taken over by the German Reichspost. In World War II, listening to Feindsender became an offence, however. Reichssender Wien transmissions were important for strategic bombing alerts, the Funkhaus broadcasting centre itself was damaged by Allied bombs in January and February 1945, followed by the Red Army Vienna Offensive. Reichssender Wien last aired 6 April, before retiring SS troops blew up the Bisamberg transmitter, the RAVAG transmissions limited to the East Austrian Soviet occupation zone, and in the beginning Cold War era were increasingly considered Communist propaganda broadcasting. A number of radio stations began broadcasting in the different occupation zones and radio become a popular medium among Austrians. The Western Allies could operate their programmes nationwide from Vienna, with a higher popularity rating than the outdated RAVAG transmissions. In 1955, the regional stations were brought together as the Österreichisches Rundspruchwesen which later, in 1958, became the Österreichischer Rundfunk GmbH. All of ORFs domestic radio channels are also streamed over the internet, a version of Ö1 is broadcast internationally via short wave as Ö1 International. Its schedule includes a number of programmes in English and Spanish. An additional service, Radio 1476, formerly broadcast on medium wave each evening from 18.00 until just after midnight and its schedule was a mixture of items from Ö1, programmes for linguistic and cultural minorities, folk music, and special productions
ORF (broadcaster)
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Former War Ministry, RAVAG seat from 1924
ORF (broadcaster)
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Funkhaus Wien: today chiefly a centre for the production of radio programmes
ORF (broadcaster)
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ORF's corporate headquarters on Küniglberg in Vienna
ORF (broadcaster)
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ORF interview in Vienna
28.
Servant of Two Masters
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Servant of Two Masters is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1746. Goldoni originally wrote the play at the request of actor Antonio Sacco and his earliest drafts had large sections that were reserved for improvisation, but he revised it in 1753 in the version that exists today. The play draws on the tradition of the earlier Italian commedia dellarte, the play opens with the introduction of Beatrice, a woman who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead brother in search of the man who killed him, Florindo, who is also her lover. Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending his sisters honor, Beatrice disguises herself as Federigo so that he can collect dowry money from Pantaloon, the father of Clarice, her brothers betrothed. She wants to use money to help her lover escape. But thinking that Beatrices brother was dead, Clarice has fallen in love with another man, Silvio, interested in keeping up appearances, Pantalone tries to conceal the existence of each from the other. Beatrices servant, the quirky and comical Truffaldino, is the central figure of this play. He is always complaining of an empty stomach, and always trying to satisfy his hunger by eating everything and anything in sight, when the opportunity presents itself to be servant to another master he sees the opportunity for an extra dinner. To make matters worse, the causes him to develop a temporary stutter. To further complicate matters, Beatrice and Florindo are staying in the same hotel, in the end, with the help of Clarice and Smeraldina Beatrice and Florindo finally find each other, and with Beatrice exposed as a woman, Clarice is allowed to marry Silvio. The last matter up for discussion is whether Truffaldino and Smeraldina can get married, however, as everyone has just decided to get married, Truffaldino is forgiven. Truffaldino asks Smeraldina to marry him, one of the main themes of this play is found in the character development of Truffaldino. As mentioned above, he is always hungry and that is his action, it is what he wants in the play. Yet, the play does not end when he gets a meal. Truffaldino, it is implied, was hungry for love, themes of confrontation between young and old are presented through confrontations between Dr Lombardi and his son, Silvio, as well as Pantalone with his daughter, Clarice. The characters of the play are taken from the Italian Renaissance theatre style Commedia dellarte, in classic commedia tradition, an actor learns a stock character and plays it to perfection throughout his career. The actors had a list of scenarios, each with a very basic plot, called a canovaccio, and throughout would perform physical-comedy acts known as lazzi. The characters from Servant of Two Masters are derived from stock used in commedia dellarte
Servant of Two Masters
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"I'd like to see how I'll manage to serve two masters." Illustration from The Complete Comedies of Carlo Goldoni (1830)
29.
Carlo Goldoni
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Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italys most famous and best-loved plays, audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty. His plays offered his contemporaries images of themselves, often dramatizing the lives, values, though he wrote in French and Italian, his plays make rich use of the Venetian language, regional vernacular, and colloquialisms. Goldoni also wrote under the pen name and title Polisseno Fegeio, Pastor Arcade, One of his best known works is the comic play Servant of Two Masters, which has been translated and adapted internationally numerous times. In 2011, Richard Bean adapted the play for the National Theatre of Great Britain as One Man and its popularity led to a transfer to the West End and in 2012 to Broadway. There is an abundance of information on Goldoni, most of which comes from the introductions to his plays. However, these memoirs are known to many errors of fact. In these memoirs, he himself as a born comedian, careless, light-hearted and with a happy temperament, proof against all strokes of fate. Goldoni was born in Venice in 1707, the son of Margherita, in his memoirs, Goldoni describes his father as a physician, and claims that he was introduced to theatre by his grandfather Carlo Alessandro Goldoni. In reality, it seems that Giulio was an apothecary, as for the grandfather and his father placed him under the care of the philosopher Caldini at Rimini but the youth soon ran away with a company of strolling players and returned to Venice. In 1723 his father matriculated him into the stern Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia, however, he relates in his Memoirs that a considerable part of his time was spent in reading Greek and Latin comedies. He had already begun writing at this time and, in his third year, as a result of that incident he was expelled from the school and had to leave the city. He studied law at Udine, and eventually took his degree at University of Modena and he was employed as a law clerk at Chioggia and Feltre, after which he returned to his native city and began practicing. Goldoni returned with her to Venice, where he stayed until 1743, Goldoni entered the Italian theatre scene with a tragedy, Amalasunta, produced in Milan. The play was a critical and financial failure, everything must be done according to a certain form which I will explain to you. Goldoni thanked his critic, went back to his inn and ordered a fire and his next play, Belisario, written in 1734, was more successful, though of its success he afterward professed himself ashamed. During this period he wrote librettos for opera seria and served for a time as literary director of the San Giovanni Grisostomo. He wrote other tragedies for a time, but he was not long in discovering that his bent was for comedy
Carlo Goldoni
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Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Goldoni
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Palazzo Centani birthplace of Goldoni in Venice
Carlo Goldoni
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Monument to Goldoni in
Venice (sculpted by Antonio Dal Zotto)
Carlo Goldoni
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Monument to Goldoni in
Florence (sculpted by
Ulisse Cambi)
30.
Arturo Toscanini
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Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and of the 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for detail and sonority. He was at times the music director of La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Toscanini was born in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, and won a scholarship to the music conservatory. Living conditions at the conservatory were harsh, for example, his diet consisted almost completely of fish. When he became successful, he never ate anything that came from the sea and he joined the orchestra of an opera company, with which he toured South America in 1886. Carlo Superti and Aristide Venturi tried unsuccessfully to finish the work, in desperation, the singers suggested the name of their assistant Chorus Master, who knew the whole opera from memory. The public was taken by surprise, at first by the youth and sheer aplomb of this unknown conductor, for the rest of that season, Toscanini conducted eighteen operas, all with absolute success. Thus began his career as a conductor, at age 19, upon returning to Italy, Toscanini set out on a dual path for some time. He continued to conduct, his first appearance in Italy being at the Teatro Carignano in Turin, on November 4,1886, in the world premiere of the revised version of Alfredo Catalanis Edmea. This was the beginning of Toscaninis lifelong friendship and championing of Catalani, however, he also returned to his chair in the cello section, and participated as cellist in the world premiere of Verdis Otello under the composers supervision. The composer was impressed when Toscanini consulted him personally about Verdis Te Deum. Verdi said that he had left it out for fear that certain interpreters would have exaggerated the marking, gradually, Toscaninis reputation as an operatic conductor of unusual authority and skill supplanted his cello career. In the following decade, he consolidated his career in Italy, entrusted with the premieres of Puccinis La bohème. In 1896, Toscanini conducted his first symphonic concert and he exhibited a considerable capacity for hard work, conducting 43 concerts in Turin in 1898. By 1898, Toscanini was Principal Conductor at La Scala, where he remained until 1908, returning as Music Director and he brought the La Scala Orchestra to the United States on a concert tour in 1920/21, during which he made his first recordings. Outside Europe, Toscanini conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as well as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and he toured Europe with the New York Philharmonic in 1930. At each performance, he and the orchestra were acclaimed by critics, Toscanini was the first non-German conductor to appear at Bayreuth, and the New York Philharmonic was the first non-German orchestra to play there
Arturo Toscanini
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Toscanini's family tomb at the
Monumental Cemetery of Milan in 2015
Arturo Toscanini
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Toscanini in 1908.
Arturo Toscanini
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Arturo Toscanini poses on a ship's deck.
Arturo Toscanini
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Toscanini lifts his hat for the camera on a ship's deck.
