1.
The Marriage of Figaro (play)
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The Marriage of Figaro is a comedy in five acts, written in 1778 by Pierre Beaumarchais. This play is the second in the Figaro trilogy, preceded by The Barber of Seville, in the first play, The Barber, the story begins with a simple love triangle in which a Spanish count has fallen in love with a girl called Rosine. He disguises himself to ensure that she love him back for his character. But this is all foiled when Rosines guardian, Doctor Bartholo, the Count runs into an ex-servant of his, Figaro, and pressures him into setting up a meeting between the Count and Rosine. He succeeds and the lovers are married to end the first part of the trilogy, the Marriage was written as a sequel to The Barber. In his preface to the play, Beaumarchais says that Louis François, the plays denunciation of aristocratic privilege has been characterised as foreshadowing the French Revolution. The revolutionary leader Georges Danton said that the killed off the nobility, in exile. The play formed the basis for an opera with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte and music by Mozart, also called The Marriage of Figaro. In 1799, another based on the same play, La pazza giornata, ovvero Il matrimonio di Figaro, was produced in Venice with libretto by Gaetano Rossi. The Marriage of Figaro picks up three years following the end of The Barber of Seville as Figaro is engaged to be married to Suzanne, both characters are among the Counts staff in his dwelling. In the three years since Figaro helped forge the marriage of the Count and Rosine, the Count has already grown bored with his marriage and is taking notice of Suzanne. The Count looks to re-engage the act of primae noctis, in which he would consummate the marriage with the prior to Figaros honeymoon. The scholar and translator John Wood writes that the play was completed in more or less its existing form by 1778. It was accepted for production by the management of the Comédie Française in 1781, the censors still refused to license the play for public performance, but the king personally authorised its production. The author gave his share of the profits to charity, in France the play has held its place in the repertory, and leading companies have played it in the original language to audiences in Europe and America. In 1960 a Comédie Française production was filmed, under the direction of Jean Mayer, in the twentieth century the play continued to be staged in translation by foreign companies. In 1927 Constantin Stanislavski staged the work at the Moscow Art Theatre, in 1974 the British National Theatre company presented a version by John Wells, Beaumarchais comedy was adapted into One Mad Day. A screwball comedy in Three Acts by William James Royce, the play premiered at the Norton Clapp Theatre on 24 October 2008
The Marriage of Figaro (play)
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Title page from the first edition of The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro (play)
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Advertisement for the first English production, which opened in December 1784
The Marriage of Figaro (play)
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Costume design for Figaro (1807 production)
The Marriage of Figaro (play)
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1785 print showing the Count discovering Chérubin in Suzanne's bedroom
2.
Marcos Portugal
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Marcos António da Fonseca Portugal, known as Marcos Portugal, or Marco Portogallo, was a Portuguese classical composer, who achieved great international fame for his operas. Marcos António da Fonseca Portugal was born in Lisbon and he studied music at the Patriarchal Seminary in Lisbon where, as a 14-year-old student, he wrote his first work, a Miserere. He later worked as composer and organist at the Patriarchal See and he lived in Italy from late 1792 to 1800, possibly funded by the Prince Regent D. João, the later King John VI of Portugal. He wrote 21 operas for various Italian theatres, the first, I due gobbi, premiered in Florence in the spring of 1793. His version of The Marriage of Figaro, titled La pazza giornata, ovvero Il matrimonio di Figaro, to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi, Marcos Portugal returned to Portugal in 1800. He became maestro at the São Carlos National Theatre in Lisbon and was appointed music master at the Patriarchal Seminary in Lisbon. He continued to write operas, mainly opere serie, and a number of religious works. Upon arriving, Portugal was appointed music master to the sons and daughters of the Prince Regent and he wrote mainly religious music until at least 1824, the date of his last known surviving autograph. In Portugal and Brazil, his reputation rests mainly on his religious music and he died a Brazilian citizen in Rio de Janeiro in 1830. He authored the first official national anthems of Portugal and Brazil, in 2010, Bampton Classical Opera presented the UK première of Portugals The Marriage of Figaro. On Site Opera produced this works North American premiere in 2016, composers biography, excerpts of Le donne cambiate and overture to Il duca di Foix. Free scores by Marcos Portugal in the Choral Public Domain Library D. João VI and Marcos Portugal, The Brazilian Period, by António Jorge Marques MarcosPortugal. com, biography, links
Marcos Portugal
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Engraving by
Charles-Simon Pradier based on a painting by
Jean-Baptiste Debret
Marcos Portugal
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Score by Marcos Portugal
3.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
Opera
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The performers from the Atlanta Opera sing the finale of
Lucia di Lammermoor. The
opera orchestra is visible in the lowered area in front of the stage.
Opera
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The
Palais Garnier of the
Paris Opéra, one of the world's most famous
opera houses.
Opera
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Claudio Monteverdi
Opera
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George Frideric Handel, 1733
4.
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
5.
Lorenzo Da Ponte
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Lorenzo Da Ponte was an Italian, later American opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozarts greatest operas, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte, Lorenzo Da Ponte was born Emanuele Conegliano in 1749 in Ceneda, in the Republic of Venice. He was Jewish by birth, the eldest of three sons, in 1764, his father, Geronimo Conegliano, then a widower, converted himself and his family to Roman Catholicism in order to marry a Catholic woman. Emanuele, as was the custom, took the name of Lorenzo Da Ponte from the Bishop of Ceneda who baptised him, thanks to the bishop, the three Conegliano brothers studied at the Ceneda seminary. The bishop died in 1768, after which Lorenzo moved to the seminary at Portogruaro and he was ordained a priest in 1773. He began at this period writing poetry in Italian and Latin, including an ode to wine, in 1773 Da Ponte moved to Venice, where he made a living as a teacher of Latin, Italian and French. Although he was a Catholic priest, the man led a dissolute life. While priest of the church of San Luca, he took a mistress, at his 1779 trial, where he was charged with public concubinage and abduction of a respectable woman, it was alleged that he had been living in a brothel and organizing the entertainments there. He was found guilty and banished for fifteen years from Venice, Lorenzo Da Ponte moved to Gorizia, then part of Austria, where he lived as a writer, attaching himself to the leading noblemen and cultural patrons of the city. In 1781 he believed that he had an invitation from his friend Caterino Mazzolà, Mazzolà however offered him work at the theatre translating libretti and recommended that he seek to develop writing skills. He also gave him a letter of introduction to the composer Antonio Salieri, with the help of Salieri, Da Ponte applied for and obtained the post of librettist to the Italian Theatre in Vienna. Here he also found a patron in the banker Raimund Wetzlar von Plankenstern, as court poet and librettist in Vienna, he collaborated with Mozart, Salieri and Vicente Martín y Soler. However the quality of his elaboration gave them new life, there he rented a three-room apartment for 200 Gulden. With the death of Austrian Emperor Joseph II in 1790, Da Ponte lost his patron and he was formally dismissed from the Imperial Service in 1791, due to intrigues, receiving no support from the new Emperor, Leopold. After a precarious start in England, exercising a number of jobs including that of grocer and Italian teacher, he became librettist at the Kings Theatre, London, in 1803. In the United States, Da Ponte settled in New York City first, then Sunbury, Pennsylvania and he returned to New York to open a bookstore. He became friends with Clement Clarke Moore, and, through him and he was the first Roman Catholic priest to be appointed to the faculty, and he was also the first to have been born a Jew. In New York he introduced opera and produced in 1825 the first full performance of Don Giovanni in the United States and he also introduced Gioachino Rossinis music in the U. S. through a concert tour with his niece Giulia Da Ponte
Lorenzo Da Ponte
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Lorenzo Da Ponte Engraving by Michele Pekenino after Nathaniel Rogers
6.
Pierre Beaumarchais
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Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a French polymath. At various times in his life, he was a watchmaker, inventor, playwright, musician, diplomat, spy, publisher, horticulturist, arms dealer, satirist, financier, and revolutionary. Born a provincial watchmakers son, Beaumarchais rose in French society and became influential in the court of Louis XV as an inventor, an early French supporter of American independence, Beaumarchais lobbied the French government on behalf of the American rebels during the American War of Independence. Beaumarchais oversaw covert aid from the French and Spanish governments to supply arms and he later struggled to recover money he had personally invested in the scheme. Beaumarchais was also a participant in the stages of the French Revolution. He is probably best known, however, for his theatrical works, Beaumarchais was born Pierre-Augustin Caron in the Rue Saint-Denis, Paris on 24 January 1732. He was the boy among the six surviving children of André-Charles Caron. The family had previously been Huguenots, but had converted to Roman Catholicism in the wake of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the family was comfortably middle-class and Beaumarchais had a peaceful and happy childhood. As the only son, he was spoiled by his parents and he took an interest in music and played several instruments. Though born a Catholic, Beaumarchais retained a sympathy for Protestants, from the age of ten, Beaumarchais had some schooling at a country school where he learned some Latin. Two years later, Beaumarchais left school at twelve to work as an apprentice under his father and he may have used his own experiences during these years as the inspiration for the character of Cherubin when he wrote the Marriage of Figaro. He generally neglected his work, and at one point was evicted by his father, at the time, pocket watches were commonly unreliable for timekeeping and were worn more as fashion accessories. In response to this, Beaumarchais spent nearly a year researching improvements, in July 1753, at the age of twenty one, he invented an escapement for watches that allowed them to be made substantially more accurate and compact. The first man to take an interest in this new invention was Jean-André Lepaute, if there was a clock chiming in the wealthy homes of Paris, you can bet Lepaute built it himself. Lepaute had been a mentor to Beaumarchais after discovering the talent in a chance encounter. He encouraged him as he worked on the new invention, earned his trust and you can imagine Beaumarchais’ surprise when he read in the September issue of Le Mercure de France that M. Lepaute had just invented the most wonderful mechanism for a more portable clock. “C’est normal, ” said his father, “C’est comme ca. ”It’s normal for the class to step on those beneath them. Well, Beaumarchais did not want any of that life and he wrote a strongly worded letter to that same newspaper defending the invention as his own and urging the Royal Academy of Sciences to see the proof for themselves
Pierre Beaumarchais
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Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
Pierre Beaumarchais
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Louis XV, by
Maurice Quentin de La Tour, (1748)
Pierre Beaumarchais
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The original title page of The Marriage of Figaro
Pierre Beaumarchais
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Statue of Beaumarchais by Louis Clausade (1895), in the
4th arrondissement of Paris
7.
Burgtheater
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The Burgtheater, originally known as K. K. Theater an der Burg, then until 1918 as the K. K, hofburgtheater, is the Austrian National Theatre in Vienna and one of the most important German language theatres in the world. The theatre opened on 14 March 1741, the creation of the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa of Austria who wanted a theatre next to her palace and her son, Emperor Joseph II, called it the German National Theatre in 1776. Three Mozart operas premiered there, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro, beginning in 1794, the theatre was called the K. K. Beethovens 1st Symphony premiered there on 2 April 1800, the last performance, in October 1888, was of Goethe’s Iphigenie auf Tauris The theatres first building adjoined the Hofburg at Michaelerplatz, opposite St. Michaels Church. The theatre was moved to a new building at the Ringstraße on 14 October 1888 designed by Gottfried Semper and Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer. On 12 March 1945 the Burgtheater was largely destroyed in a bombing raid, after the war, the theatre was restored between 1953 and 1955. The classic Burgtheater style and the Burgtheater-German language were trend-setting for German language theatres, before 1776 the theatre had been leased from the state by Johann Koháry. The curator Joseph Keglevich declared the bankruptcy of the theatre in 1776, the benchmark for the directors became the finances of the house. Finally, Ferdinánd Pálffy became the tenant 1794-1817, his finances had come from the institute in Banská Štiavnica the first technical university in the world. The Burgtheater remained a traditional stage with a distinct culture until the late 1960s. From the early 1970s on, it became a venue for some of Europes most important stage director, W. Fischer, Paul Hörbiger, Otto Tausig, Peter Weck, Fritz Muliar, and Christoph Waltz. Particularly deserving artists may be designated honorable members and their names are engraved in marble at the bottom end of the ceremonial stairs at the side of the theatre facing the Volksgarten. Members of honor include, Annemarie Düringer, Wolfgang Gasser, Heinrich Schweiger, Gusti Wolf, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Michael Heltau. Among the staged and costume designers were Fritz Wotruba, Luciano Damiani, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Ezio Frigerio, Franca Squarciapino, Josef Svoboda, Anselm Kiefer, Moidele Bickel, and Milena Canonero. Notable performances, The world premiere of Des Feux dans la Nuit in 1999 at the Burgtheater, was the first solo created for a man by internationally acclaimed choreographer Marie Chouinard, raimund Theater Theater in der Josefstadt Volkstheater Wien Akademietheater Burgtheater homepage Burgtheater information and photography
Burgtheater
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Burgtheater
Burgtheater
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The old Burgtheater (before 1888)
Burgtheater
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Burgtheater (right after its construction)
Burgtheater
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Burgtheater (side)
8.
Libretto
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A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata. Libretto, from Italian, is the diminutive of the word libro, sometimes other language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, livret for French works and Textbuch for German. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. The relationship of the librettist to the composer in the creation of a work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources. In the context of a modern English language musical theatre piece, Libretti for operas, oratorios and cantatas in the 17th and 18th centuries generally were written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Metastasio was one of the most highly regarded librettists in Europe and his libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th-century librettist was Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote the libretti for three of Mozarts greatest operas, as well as for other composers. Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer, Auber, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. The French writers duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote a number of opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach, Jules Massenet. Arrigo Boito, who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli, the libretto is not always written before the music. Some composers wrote their own libretti, Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Hector Berlioz, too, wrote the libretti for two of his works, La Damnation de Faust and Les Troyens. Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchners play Woyzeck for the libretto of Wozzeck, sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer, this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Belsky, or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics, thus, a musical such as Fiddler on the Roof has a composer, a lyricist and the writer of the book. In rare cases, the composer writes everything except the dance arrangements - music, lyrics and libretto, Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. A famous case of the latter is Wagners 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris, since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. The libretto of a musical, on the hand, is almost always written in prose
Libretto
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Cover of a 1921 libretto for Giordano's
Andrea Chénier
Libretto
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The composer of
Cavalleria rusticana,
Pietro Mascagni, flanked by his librettists,
Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and
Guido Menasci.
Libretto
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Pages from an 1859 libretto for
Ernani, with the original Italian lyrics, English translation and musical notation for one of the arias.
Libretto
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Henry Purcell (1659–1695) whose operas were written to English libretti.
9.
The Barber of Seville (play)
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The Barber of Seville or the Useless Precaution is a French play by Pierre Beaumarchais, with original music by Antoine-Laurent Baudron. It was initially conceived as an opera, and was rejected as such in 1772 by the Comédie-Italienne. The play as it is now known was written in 1773 and it is the first play in a trilogy of which the other constituents are The Marriage of Figaro and The Guilty Mother. Though the play was received at first, Beaumarchais worked some fast editing of the script. The plays title might be a pun on Tirso de Molinas earlier play El Burlador de Sevilla, mozart wrote a set of 12 variations, K.354, on one of Baudrons songs, Je suis Lindor. The story follows a traditional Commedia dellarte structure, with many characters based on famous stock characters. The plot involves a Spanish count, called simply The Count although Almaviva appears as an additional name, to ensure that she really loves him and not just his money, the Count disguises himself as a poor college student named Lindor, and attempts to woo her. His plans are foiled by Rosines guardian Doctor Bartholo, who keeps her locked up in his house and intends to marry her himself. The Counts luck changes, however, after a reunion with an ex-servant of his, Figaro. The story culminates in the marriage of the Count and Rosine, the Count, disguised as a poor university student, waits in hope of catching a glimpse of Rosine, whom he encountered in Madrid and has followed to Seville. To this point they have never spoken to each other, Figaro happens to come down the street, singing a song, he and the Count recognize each other. While the two men talk, Dr. Bartholo and Rosine come to a window of the house, Rosine pretends to drop a piece of sheet music from her window inadvertently. While the doctor is coming down the stairs to retrieve it, Rosine instructs the Count to pick up the sheet himself. He does, and finds a note from Rosine hidden inside it, Figaro advises the Count that Rosine is the ward of Dr. Bartholo, and adds that as he is the doctors barber and apothecary, he has frequent occasion to visit the house. He proposes a plan to smuggle the Count into the house by disguising him as a soldier in need of lodging. The two are interrupted when they overhear Dr. Bartholo making plans to secretly marry Rosine during the night, before he leaves to see his friend Bazile, afterwards, the Count sings to Rosine, introducing himself as a poor man named Lindor who is in love with her. From inside the house, Rosine sings a verse to the tune of Maître en droit, requiting his affections, Figaro and the Count go their separate ways, agreeing to meet again to put their plan in action. In Dr. Bartholos house, Rosine writes a note to Lindor, when Figaro drops in, she asks if he will deliver the note
The Barber of Seville (play)
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A scene from a 19th-century version of The Barber of Seville. Its origins in the
commedia dell'arte are shown in this picture which portrays Figaro dressed in the costume and mask of
Harlequin.
10.
The Barber of Seville (Paisiello)
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Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La precauzione inutile is a comic opera by Giovanni Paisiello from a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, even though his name is not identified on the scores title page. The opera was first performed on 26 September 1782 at the Imperial Court and it was adapted from the play Le Barbier de Séville of Pierre Beaumarchais. The plots of the Paisiello and the Rossini versions very closely resemble each other, petrosellinis libretto puts a greater emphasis on the love story and less on the comic qualities. Several musical adaptations of Il barbiere di Siviglia predated the version by Paisiello, although it is missing only the closing ritornello, the incomplete orchestration suggests it was never used. The opera proved to be Paisiellos biggest success, even after the 1816 premiere of Gioachino Rossinis own version of The Barber of Seville, Paisiellos version continued to be more popular by comparison. With time, however, that situation changed, as Rossinis version gained in popularity, Paisiellos diminished in parallel, to the point where it fell from the repertoire. Paisiellos version did receive revival in later years, including Paris, Turin, Berlin, notes Sources Holden, Amanda, The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York, Penguin Putnam,2001. ISBN 0-14-029312-4 Lazarevich, Gordana, Barbiere di Siviglia, Il, in Sadie, Stanley, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, New York, Grove,1997, I, pp. 309-311
The Barber of Seville (Paisiello)
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Il Barbieri di Siviglia, with Mari Eriksmoen and
Pietro Spagnoli,
Theater an der Wien 2015
11.
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I and he was thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the House of Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine. He has been ranked, with Catherine the Great of Russia and Frederick the Great of Prussia and his policies are now known as Josephinism. He died with no sons and was succeeded by his younger brother, Joseph was born in the midst of the early upheavals of the War of the Austrian Succession. His real education was given to him through the writings of Voltaire and the Encyclopédistes and he married Princess Isabella of Parma in October 1760, a union fashioned to bolster the 1756 defensive pact between France and Austria. Joseph loved his bride, Isabella, finding her both stimulating and charming, and she sought, with care to cultivate his favor. The marriage of Joseph and Isabella resulted in the birth of a daughter, Isabella was fearful of pregnancy and early death. Her own pregnancy proved difficult as she suffered symptoms of pain, illness. She remained bedridden for six weeks after their daughters birth, almost immediately on the back of their newfound parenthood, the couple then endured two consecutive miscarriages—an ordeal particularly hard on Isabella—followed quickly by another pregnancy. Pregnancy was again provoking melancholy, fears and dread in Isabella, progressively ill with smallpox and strained by sudden childbirth and tragedy, Isabella died the following week. This marriage proved unhappy, albeit brief, as it lasted only two years. Though Maria Josepha loved her husband, she felt timid and inferior in his company, lacking common interests or pleasures, the relationship offered little for Joseph, who confessed he felt no love for her in return. He adapted by distancing himself from his wife to the point of near total avoidance, seeing her only at meals, Maria Josepha, in turn, suffered considerable misery in finding herself locked in a cold, loveless union. Four months after the anniversary of their wedding, Maria Josepha grew ill. Joseph neither visited her during her illness nor attended her funeral, though he expressed regret for not having shown her better kindness. One thing the union did provide him was the possibility of laying claim to a portion of Bavaria. In 1770, at the age of seven, Josephs only surviving child, Maria Theresa, became ill with pleurisy, the loss of his daughter was deeply traumatic for him and left him profoundly grief-stricken and scarred. He was made a member of the council of state
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Joseph II by Joseph Hickel
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Portrait of Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Fête Organized to Celebrate the Marriage of the Emperor Joseph II to Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria 23/24 January 1765. Painting by Johann Georg Weikert. The central figures are the three youngest siblings of Joseph, from left to right Archduke
Ferdinand as the groom, Archduke
Maximilian Franz as Cupid, and Archduchess
Marie-Antoinette as the bride.
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
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The Arrival of Isabella of Parma on the Occasion of Her Wedding to Joseph II, 1760. Painting by
Martin van Meytens.
12.
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
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Luigi Bassi in the title role of Don Giovanni in 1787
13.
Austro-Hungarian gulden
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The Gulden or forint was the currency of the lands of the House of Habsburg between 1754 and 1892, when it was replaced by the Krone/korona as part of the introduction of the gold standard. In Austria, the Gulden was initially divided into 60 Kreuzer, and in Hungary, the currency was decimalized in 1857, using the same names for the unit and subunit. The name Gulden was used on the pre-1867 Austrian banknotes and on the German language side of the post-1867 banknotes, in southern Germany, the word Gulden was the standard word for a major currency unit. The name Florin was used on Austrian coins and forint was used on the Hungarian language side of the post-1867 banknotes and it comes from the city of Florence, Italy where the first florins were minted. Until 1806, Austria was the state of the Holy Roman Empire. Following the winding up of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, in 1857, the Vereinsthaler was introduced across the German Confederation and Austria-Hungary, with a silver content of 16 2⁄3 grams. This was slightly less than 1 1⁄2 times the content of the Gulden. Consequently, Austria-Hungary adopted a new standard for the Gulden, containing two-thirds as much silver as the Vereinsthaler and this involved a debasement of the currency of 4. 97%. Austria-Hungary also decimalized at the time, resulting in a new currency system of 100 Kreuzer =1 Gulden. In 1892 the Austro-Hungarian Gulden was replaced by the Krone, at a rate of 2 Krone =1 Gulden, copper coins were initially issued in denominations of 1 Heller up to 1 Kreuzer, with silver coins in denominations from 3 Kreuzer up to 1 Conventionsthaler. The Turkish and Napoleonic Wars led to issues in various denominations. These included a 12 Kreuzer coin which only contained 6 Kreuzer worth of silver and was later overstruck to produce a 7 Kreuzer coin, in 1807, copper coins were issued in denominations of 15 and 30 Kreuzer by the Wiener Stadt Banco. These issues were tied in value to the paper money. The coinage returned to its state after 1814. The only copper coin was a poltura worth 1 1⁄2 krajczár, whilst there were silver 3,5,10,20 and 30 krajczár, all issues ceased in 1794 and did not resume until 1830, when silver coins of 20 krajczár and above were issued. Only in 1868, following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, did an issue of coins for Hungary begin. Denominations were fewer than in Austria, with copper 1⁄2,1 and 4 krajczár, silver 10 and 20 krajczár and 1 forint, between 1759 and 1811, the Wiener Stadt Banco issued paper money denominated in Gulden. However, the banknotes were not tied to the coinage and their values floated relative to one another, in 1858, new notes were issued denominated in Austrian Currency rather than Convention Currency
Austro-Hungarian gulden
–
1000 Gulden/forint banknote (1880)
Austro-Hungarian gulden
Austro-Hungarian gulden
14.
Joseph Weigl
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Joseph Weigl, was an Austrian composer and conductor, born in Eisenstadt, Hungary, Austrian Empire. The son of Joseph Franz Weigl, the principal cellist in the orchestra of the Esterházy family, he studied music under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and he became Kapellmeister at the court theatre in Vienna in 1792, and from 1827 to 1838 was vice-Kapellmeister of the court. Weigl composed a number of operas, both Italian and German and in genres, although most of his late works are pieces of sacred music. His best known work was the opera Die Schweizerfamilie and he also set Emanuel Schikaneders libretto Vestas Feuer, after Ludwig van Beethoven had composed a single scene and then abandoned it
Joseph Weigl
–
Joseph Weigl; Lithograph by
Josef Kriehuber, 1829
15.
The Magic Flute
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The Magic Flute, K.620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on 30 September 1791 at Schikaneders theatre, the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, separately, then together, Tamino and Pamina undergo severe trials of initiation, which end in triumph, with the Queen and her cohorts vanquished. The earthy Papageno, who accompanies Tamino on his quest, fails the trials completely but is rewarded anyway with the hand of his female companion Papagena. The opera was the culmination of a period of increasing involvement by Mozart with Schikaneders theatrical troupe, Mozart was a close friend of one of the singer-composers of the troupe, tenor Benedikt Schack, and had contributed to the compositions of the troupe, which were often collaboratively written. Mozarts participation increased with his contributions to the 1790 collaborative opera Der Stein der Weisen, like The Magic Flute, Der Stein der Weisen was a fairy-tale opera and can be considered a kind of precursor, it employed much the same cast in similar roles. The libretto for The Magic Flute, written by Schikaneder, is thought by scholars to be based on many sources, especially for the role of Papageno, the libretto draws on the Hanswurst tradition of the Viennese popular theatre. Many scholars also acknowledge an influence of Freemasonry, for detailed discussion of sources see Branscombe, as well as Libretto of The Magic Flute. In composing the opera, Mozart evidently kept in mind the skills of the intended for the premiere. Thus, the lines for Papageno—sung by Schikaneder himself—and Monostatos are often stated first in the strings so the singer can find his pitch. In contrast, Mozarts sister-in-law Josepha Hofer, who premiered the role of the Queen of the Night, evidently needed little such help, in ensembles, Mozart skillfully combined voices of different ability levels. The vocal ranges of two of the singers for whom Mozart tailored his music have posed challenges for many singers who have since recreated their roles. Both arias of the Queen of the Night, O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn and Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen require high F6, rare in opera. At the low end, the part of Sarastro, premiered by Franz Xaver Gerl, the opera was premiered in Vienna on 30 September 1791 at the suburban Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden. Mozart conducted the orchestra, Schikaneder himself played Papageno, while the role of the Queen of the Night was sung by Mozarts sister-in-law Josepha Hofer, as Mozarts letters show, he was very pleased to have achieved such a success. Solomon continues, Mozarts delight is reflected in his last three letters, written to Constanze, who with her sister Sophie was spending the week of October in Baden. I have this moment returned from the opera, which was as full as ever, he wrote on 7 October, but what always gives me the most pleasure is the silent approval. You can see how this opera is becoming more and more esteemed, … He went to hear his opera almost every night, taking along relatives
The Magic Flute
–
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Magic Flute
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Emanuel Schikaneder, librettist of Die Zauberflöte, shown performing in the role of Papageno. The object on his back is a birdcage; see below.
The Magic Flute
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Playbill for the premiere, 30 September 1791. For text, see footnote.
The Magic Flute
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The arrival of the Queen of the Night. Stage set by
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) for an 1815 production
16.
Masterpiece
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Historically, a masterpiece was a work of a very high standard produced in order to obtain membership of a guild or academy in various areas of the visual arts and crafts. The word masterpiece probably derives from the Dutch meesterstuk or German meisterstück via loan translation, masterprize was another early variant in English. In English, the term became used in a variety of contexts for an exceptionally good piece of creative work. Originally, the term referred to a piece of work produced by an apprentice or journeyman aspiring to become a master craftsman in the old European guild system. His fitness to qualify for membership was judged partly by the masterpiece, and if he was successful. Great care was taken to produce a fine piece in whatever the craft was, whether confectionery, painting, goldsmithing, knifemaking. In the 17th century, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, for instance, the workhouse had been set up as part of a tightening of standards after the company became concerned that the level of skill of goldsmithing was being diluted. The same goldsmithing organization still requires the production of a masterpiece, if they failed to be admitted, then they could continue to work for other goldsmiths but not as a master themselves. In some guilds, apprentices were not allowed to marry until they had obtained full membership, the practice of producing a masterpiece has continued in some modern academies of art, where the general term for such works is now reception piece. The Royal Academy in London uses the term work and it has acquired a fine collection of diploma works received as a condition of membership. Painting the Century,101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900–2000 Virtual Collection of Masterpieces Masterpieces at the Louvre
Masterpiece
–
In painting, the
Mona Lisa by
Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–1506, is the archetypal masterpiece, though it was not produced for admission to a guild or academy.
Masterpiece
–
Rinaldo and Armida by
François Boucher. A masterpiece produced for admission to the
Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris, 1734.
17.
Ferenc Kazinczy
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Ferenc Kazinczy was a Hungarian author, the most indefatigable agent in the regeneration of the Magyar language and literature at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. He was born at Érsemjén, in the county of Bihar, in 1784 Kazinczy became subnotary for the county of Abaúj, and in 1786 he was nominated inspector of schools at Kassa. Although, upon the accession of Leopold II, Kazinczy, as a non-Catholic, was obliged to resign his post at Kassa and he not only assisted Raday in the establishment and direction of the first Magyar dramatic society, but enriched the repertoire with several translations from foreign authors. His Hamlet, which first appeared at Kassa in 1790, is a rendering from the German version of Schröder. In 1828 he took a part in the conferences held for the establishment of the Hungarian academy. He died of cholera at Széphalom and he also edited the works of Sándor Báróczi and of the poet Zrinyi, and the poems of Dayka and of John Kis. A collected edition of his works, consisting for the most part of translations, was published at Pest, 1814-1816 and his original productions, largely made up of letters, were edited by Joseph Bajza and Francis Toldy at Pest, 1836-1845, in 5 vols. Editions of his poems appeared in 1858 and in 1863, in 1873, a neo-classicistic memorial hall and graveyard was built in Széphalom for his memory, based on the plans of the architect Miklós Ybl. Today it belongs to the Ottó Herman Museum, the Museum of the Hungarian Language is intended to be built here, whose cornerstone has been laid in the park. Tövisek és virágok 1811. Poétai episztola Vitkovics Mihályhoz 1811. Ortológus és neológus nálunk és más nemzeteknél 1819 and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
Ferenc Kazinczy
–
Ferenc Kazinczy
Ferenc Kazinczy
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First meeting of Ferenc Kazinczy and
Károly Kisfaludy in 1828, based on painting by
Soma Orlai Petrich
Ferenc Kazinczy
–
Ferenc Kölcsey
18.
Nancy Storace
–
Anna Selina Storace, known as Nancy Storace, was an English operatic soprano. The role of Susanna in Mozarts Le nozze di Figaro was written for, born in London, her singing career as a child prodigy began in England by the age of 12. This led to study in Italy and to a successful singing career there during the late 1770s. In Vienna, she befriended both Mozart and Joseph Haydn, a sudden failure of her voice in 1785 caused her to withdraw from the stage for five months, though her career continued to be successful, she never fully recovered her former vocal prowess. After marrying in 1784, she left Vienna in 1787 and returned to London where she continued her career and she remained in London, and by 1808, had retired from the stage. Nancy Storaces mother was Elizabeth Trusler, the daughter of the proprietor of Marylebone Gardens and her father was Stefano Storace, an Italian who had emigrated to Ireland in 1750 and worked there as a double bass player until 1756. By 1759 he was performing in London, a reviewer called him the first performer of his time on the double-bass, Storace also translated opera libretti from Italian into English, and arranged music for performance. Their older child Stephen Storace, who achieved fame as a musician, was born in 1762. Nancy Storace was born 1765 in London and she was a child prodigy, she first performed in public in Southampton in 1773, in April 1774 she made her first London appearance at the Haymarket Theatre. She studied voice with the celebrated castrato Venanzio Rauzzini and premiered the role of Cupido in Rauzzinis opera Lali damore on 29 February 1776, in 1778, Storace travelled to Naples in the company of her parents, her older brother Stephen was already there studying composition. She studied in Venice under Antonio Sacchini, the visit to Italy became an extended one as Storace embarked on a very successful career there, singing at first minor roles, then major ones. The composer Giuseppe Sarti wrote his opera Fra i due litiganti il terzo gode specifically for her, while in Italy, Storace met the Irish tenor Michael Kelly, who was for a long time her colleague as well as a friend. Kelly mentions her frequently in his memoirs and he was then in his prime, and attracted not only all Florence, but I may say all Tuscany. Storace was engaged to sing second woman in his operas, and to the circumstance, well known all over the Continent. Immediately after this song, Storace had to sing one, and was determined to bring a bomba into the field also and she attempted it, and executed it, to the admiration and astonishment of the audience, but to the dismay of poor Marchesi. Campigli, the manager, requested her to discontinue it, but she peremptorily refused, in 1783 the Austrian Emperor Joseph II founded a new opera company specialising in Italian opera buffa. At the time Storace was singing at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice, count Giacomo Durazzo, who was both an experienced former theatre director and the Emperors ambassador, engaged Storace as the prima donna for the new company. At the same time he recruited the outstanding basso buffo Francesco Benucci, both singers were offered high salaries, over 4000 florins
Nancy Storace
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Portrait of Nancy Storace, circa 1788 by
Pietro Bettelini. Retouched version; click for original.
Nancy Storace
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Nancy Storace, ca. 1790, by
Benjamin van der Gucht (1753–1794)
19.
Fortepiano
–
A fortepiano is an early piano. In principle, the fortepiano can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century. Most typically, however, it is used to refer to the late-18th to early-19th century instruments for which Haydn, Mozart, starting in Beethovens time, the fortepiano began a period of steady evolution, culminating in the late 19th century with the modern grand. The earlier fortepiano became obsolete and was absent from the scene for many decades. In the 20th century the fortepiano was revived, following the rise of interest in historically informed performance, fortepianos are built for this purpose today in specialist workshops. The fortepiano has leather-covered hammers and thin, harpsichord-like strings and it has a much lighter case construction than the modern piano and, except for later examples of the early nineteenth century, it has no metal frame or bracing. The action and hammers are lighter, giving rise to a lighter touch. The range of the fortepiano was about four octaves at the time of its invention, Mozart wrote his piano music for instruments of about five octaves. The piano works of Beethoven reflect an expanding range, his last piano compositions are for an instrument of about six octaves. Fortepianos from the start often had similar to the pedals of modern pianos. Like the modern piano, the fortepiano can vary the volume of each note. The tone of the fortepiano is quite different from that of the piano, however. Sforzando accents tend to stand out more than on the piano, as they differ from softer notes in timbre as well as volume. Fortepianos also tend to have different tone quality in their different registers—slightly buzzing in the bass, tinkling in the high treble. In comparison, modern pianos are rather more uniform in sound through their range, the piano was invented by harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence around the turn of the 18th century. The first reliable record of a piano appears in the inventory of the Medici family, Cristofori continued to develop the instrument until the 1720s, the time from which the surviving three Cristofori instruments date. Cristofori is perhaps best admired today for his ingenious piano action, however, other innovations were also needed to make the piano possible. Merely attaching the Cristofori action to a harpsichord would have produced a weak tone
Fortepiano
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Fortepiano by Paul McNulty after Walter & Sohn, ca. 1805
Fortepiano
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A 1720 fortepiano by Cristofori in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It is the oldest surviving piano.
Fortepiano
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Fortepiano by Johann Andreas Stein (Augsburg, 1775) - Berlin, Musikinstrumentenmuseum
Fortepiano
–
Fortepiano by Conrad Graf in the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen,
Mannheim
20.
Joseph Haydn
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Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. Haydn spent much of his career as a musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, yet his music circulated widely and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe. He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, a teacher of Beethoven, Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a village that at that time stood on the border with Hungary. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who served as Marktrichter. Haydns mother Maria, née Koller, had worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach. Neither parent could read music, however, Mathias was a folk musician. According to Haydns later reminiscences, his family was extremely musical. Haydns parents had noticed that their son was musically gifted and knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain serious musical training, Haydn therefore went off with Frankh to Hainburg 12 kilometres away, he never again lived with his parents. Life in the Frankh household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently hungry and he began his musical training there, and could soon play both harpsichord and violin. The people of Hainburg heard him sing treble parts in the church choir, Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and after several months of further training moved to Vienna, where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister. Haydn lived in the Kapellhaus next to the cathedral, along with Reutter, Reutters family, and the other four choirboys, the choirboys were instructed in Latin and other school subjects as well as voice, violin, and keyboard. Reutter was of help to Haydn in the areas of music theory and composition. However, since St. Stephens was one of the musical centres in Europe. Like Frankh before him, Reutter did not always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed, by 1749, Haydn had matured physically to the point that he was no longer able to sing high choral parts. Empress Maria Theresa herself complained to Reutter about his singing, calling it crowing, one day, Haydn carried out a prank, snipping off the pigtail of a fellow chorister. This was enough for Reutter, Haydn was first caned, then summarily dismissed and he had the good fortune to be taken in by a friend, Johann Michael Spangler, who shared his familys crowded garret room with Haydn for a few months. Haydn immediately began his pursuit of a career as a freelance musician and he was also briefly in Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitzs employ, playing the organ in the Bohemian Chancellery chapel at the Judenplatz
Joseph Haydn
–
Portrait of Joseph Haydn by
Thomas Hardy (1792)
Joseph Haydn
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The Morzin palace in Dolní Lukavice, Czech Republic
Joseph Haydn
–
Schloss Esterhazy, the ancestral home of the Esterházy family
Joseph Haydn
–
View of
Eszterháza
21.
Laxenburg
–
Laxenburg is a market town in the district of Mödling, in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Laxenburg became a Habsburg possession in 1333, duke Albert III had a hunting lodge erected here and vested the settlement with market rights. The castle again decayed afterwards, until in the 17th century it was restored at the behest of Emperor Leopold I, rebuilt in a Baroque style by the master builder Lodovico Burnacini, it became the centre of extended gardens and pleasure grounds. Later Empress Maria Theresa acquired the palace and from 1756 onwards had it lavishly rebuilt her court architect Nicolò Pacassi with a Rococo interior, Laxenburg became the favourite residence of Maria Theresa and her descendants. The parish church of Laxenburg was erected vis-à-vis between 1693 and 1703 by Carlo Antonio Carlone, Emperor Leopold I himself laid the founding stone. Consecrated in 1699, construction works continued between 1703 and 1724 supervised by the architect Matthias Steinl and it was the first building north of the Alps containing swung facade components. After 1780, the parks were re-arranged as an English landscape garden. It contains several ponds, and, on an island, Franzensburg Castle. The current political municipality was established after the 1848 revolutions, in 1854, Emperor Francis Joseph and his consort Elisabeth spent their honeymoon in Laxenburg. Two of their children, Gisela and Crown Prince Rudolf, were born here, after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1919, the city of Vienna took over the war-damaged castle. Since then, the city of Vienna became the property owner of the park area, after the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany in 1938, the municipality of Laxenburg temporarily was incorporated the city of Greater Vienna. After World War II, castles and parl were seized by Soviet occupation forces, upon the 1955 Austrian State Treaty, the place became independent again and returned to the state of Lower Austria. Plans to held the 1967 Worlds fair in Laxenburg failed, since 1973, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, a non-governmental research organization with about 200 employees, has been located in the castle. The International Anti-Corruption Academy is also located in Laxenburg, established in 2010 at the historic Palais Kaunitz- Wittgenstein, the Altes Schloss today houses the Filmarchiv Austria. Gisela Louise Marie von Österreich, Archduchess of Austria-Hungary, daughter of Kaiser Franz Josef I, Crown Prince Rudolf - son of Kaiser Franz Josef I and Kaiserin Elisabeth. Elisabeth Marie von Österreich, daughter of Crown Prince Rudolf, eduard Hartmann, Austrian politician, Abg. zum Nationalrat, Bundesminister für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Landeshauptmann von Niederösterreich. On 8 September 2006 Natascha Kampusch kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil was buried on the cemetery of Laxenburg, gödöllő, Hungary Municipal website Entry on Aeiou Encyclopedia
Laxenburg
–
Coat of arms
22.
Mozart and Prague
–
Daniel E. Freeman has provided the most comprehensive appraisal of the conditions that made Prague so attractive as a musical destination for Mozart in the 1780s. One of the most important reasons include a recovery in the population of the city created a musical public much larger than had been present in the city just a few decades prior to this time. Prague always retained a certain prestige as the city of the kingdom of Bohemia. It was later purchased by the Estates of Bohemia and is known as the Estates Theatre. Josepha had a strong connection with Mozart as a result of frequent visits she made to his native city of Salzburg. Mozarts opera The Marriage of Figaro, which premiered in Vienna, was produced in late 1786 in Prague with tremendous success, the orchestra and some affiliated music lovers funded a personal visit by Mozart so he could hear the production. Mozart first came to Prague on 11 January 1787 and stayed until the week of February. On 19 January a concert was organized for his benefit at which the Prague Symphony was given its first performance. Mozart also improvised a solo on the variations on the popular aria Non più andrai from The Marriage of Figaro. Afterward, Mozart said he counted this day as one of the happiest of his life, Daniel E. Mozart came to Prague for the second time to help supervise the first performance of his opera Don Giovanni. He arrived on 4 October 1787 and stayed until 12 or 13 November, the premiere of the opera was supposed to have taken place on 15 October, but could not be arranged until 29 October 1787. The work was received, the Prager Oberpostamtzeitung reported, Connoisseurs and musicians say that Prague has never heard the like. For further details, see Mozarts Berlin journey, Mozart wrote La clemenza di Tito for the festivities accompanying Leopold IIs Prague coronation as king of Bohemia in September 1791. Mozart obtained this commission after Antonio Salieri had allegedly rejected it, Mozart arrived on 28 August 1791 and left in the third week of September. The opera received its first performance on 6 September 1791, unlike the first two visits, Mozart was not the center of attention on his last visit. Rather, his activities were overshadowed by the ceremonies of the Imperial court. The grief exhibited for Mozart in Prague after his death on 5 December 1791 far exceeded that witnessed in any other European city, many more commemorations were organized in subsequent years and citizens of Prague took it upon themselves to provide sustenance to Mozarts widow and orphaned children. After Don Giovanni, Mozart may have had an offer to stay and write another opera for Prague
Mozart and Prague
–
Estates Theatre in Prague where two of Mozart's operas were premiered
Mozart and Prague
–
Biography
23.
Adriana Ferrarese del Bene
–
Adriana Ferrarese del Bene was an Italian operatic soprano. She was one of the first performers of Susanna in Mozarts Le Nozze di Figaro and she has been known under a variety of names. The 1979 edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera lists her as born Adriana Gabrieli, what is known is that she married Luigi del Bene in 1782 and performed thereafter as Adriana Ferrarese del Bene. Adriana Ferrarese del Bene studied in Venice and performed in London before arriving in Vienna, where she made her reputation singing serious roles in opera buffa
Adriana Ferrarese del Bene
–
Portrait of Adriana Ferrarese del Bene circa 1785
24.
Voice type
–
Other considerations are physical characteristics, speech level, scientific testing, and vocal register. A singers voice type is identified by a known as voice classification, by which the human voice is evaluated. The discipline of voice classification developed within European classical music and is not generally applicable to other forms of singing, voice classification is often used within opera to associate possible roles with potential voices. Voice classification is a tool for singers, composers, venues, while useful, voice classification systems have been used too rigidly, i. e. a house assigning a singer to a specific type and only casting him or her in roles they consider belonging to this category. A singer will choose a repertoire that suits his or her instrument, many different voice types are used in vocal pedagogy in a variety of voice classification systems. Most of these types, however, are grouped into seven major categories that are, for the most part. Women are typically divided into three groups, soprano, mezzo-soprano, and alto, men are usually divided into four groups, countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass. Some women fall into the tenor or baritone groups, while men identified as countertenors can be grouped as contralto, mezzo-soprano, when considering the pre-pubescent voice, an eighth term, treble, is applied. Within each of these categories, subcategories identify specific vocal qualities such as coloratura facility. The vocal range of classical performance covers about five octaves, from a low G1 to a high G6, any individuals voice can perform over a range of one and a half to more than two octaves. Vocal ranges are grouped into overlapping types that each span two octaves. Many singers fall between groups and can perform some parts in either type, soprano range, The soprano is the highest singing voice. The typical soprano voice lies between C4 and C6, the low extreme for sopranos is roughly A3. Most soprano roles do not extend above C6 although there are several standard soprano roles that call for D6, at the highest extreme, some coloratura soprano roles may reach to F6. Soprano tessitura, The tessitura of the soprano voice lies higher than all the other voices except the sopranino, in particular, the coloratura soprano has the highest tessitura of all the soprano subtypes. Soprano subtypes, As with all types, sopranos are often divided into different subcategories based on range, vocal color or timbre, the weight of voice. Sopranos are often broken down into five subcategories, coloratura soprano, soubrette, lyric soprano, spinto soprano, two types of soprano especially dear to the French are the Dugazon and the Falcon, which are intermediate voice types between the soprano and the mezzo soprano. A Dugazon is a darker-colored soubrette, a Falcon a darker-colored soprano drammatico
Voice type
–
Soprano voice range (C4–C6) indicated on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C.
25.
Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
–
The Neue Mozart-Ausgabe is the second complete works edition of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A longer and more formal title for the edition is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, still being published are the Critical Reports – technical commentaries in German. By 2008 these were nearly complete, at the same time, the NMA is not entirely free of problems, although to most observers these do not detract from the scholarly achievement that this edition clearly represents. Consequently, the editors of the NMA had to manage with this state of affairs as well as possible, in editing The Marriage of Figaro for the NMA, which appeared in 1973, Ludwig Finscher was only able to access the first two acts of the autograph score. In editing the Piano Concerto No, along similar lines, Landon comments that recently discovered ms. sources have rendered even the NMAs edition of the Linz symphony obsolete. It is perhaps inevitable that new finds will in time render some aspects of the NMA open to reconsideration, since research, some detailed criticism of the ornamentation suggested by the NMA can be found in Frederick Neumanns book Ornamentation and Improvisation in Mozart. Neumann finds some of the ornamentation, particularly regarding vocal cadenzas, helpful, ^ Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Mozart. ^ Wolfgang Rehm, Collected Editions, in H. C. Robbins Landon, the Mozart Compendium, A Guide to Mozarts Life and Music. ^ See this listing of the volumes on the Bärenreiter website. ^ H. C. Robbins Landon, Mozart, The Golden Years, ^ Alan Tyson, Mozart, Studies of the Autograph Scores, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press,1987. ^ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, Serie V, Werkgruppe 15, Band 8, reprinted in Mozart, The Piano Concertos/Bärenreiter Urtext, ISMN M-006-20470-0, published in 2006. ^ Frederick Neumann, Ornamentation and Improvisation in Mozart, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press,1986. See especially pp. 209ff. on vocal appoggiaturas, ^ For details, see the Bärenreiter website. ^ NMA Online ^ Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum
Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
–
The
Bärenreiter "study score" reprint (2006) of the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe's volumes containing all of Mozart's piano concertos. The nine full-sized clothbound volumes of the original edition have been reduced to three thick slipcased paperbacks.
26.
Mezzo-soprano
–
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-sopranos vocal range extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above. In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C, the mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic mezzo-soprano. Mezzo-sopranos are well represented in music, early music. Some roles designated for lighter soubrette sopranos are sung by mezzo-sopranos, such roles include Despina in Mozarts Così fan tutte and Zerlina in his Don Giovanni. Mezzos sometimes play dramatic soprano roles such as Santuzza in Mascagnis Cavalleria rusticana, Lady Macbeth in Verdis Macbeth, the vocal range of the mezzo-sopranos lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. Mezzo-sopranos generally have a heavier, darker tone than sopranos, the mezzo-soprano voice resonates in a higher range than that of a contralto. The terms Dugazon and Galli-Marié are sometimes used to refer to light mezzo-sopranos, usually men singing within the female range are called countertenors since there is a lighter more breathy tonal quality difference. Within the mezzo-soprano voice type category are three generally recognized subcategories, coloratura mezzo-soprano, lyric mezzo-soprano, and dramatic mezzo-soprano, a coloratura mezzo-soprano has a warm lower register and an agile high register. The roles they sing often demand not only the use of the register but also leaps into the upper tessitura with highly ornamented. They have a range from approximately the G below middle C to the B two octaves above middle C, some coloratura mezzo-sopranos can sing up to high C or high D, but this is very rare. What distinguishes these voices from being called sopranos is their extension into the register and warmer vocal quality. Although coloratura mezzo-sopranos have impressive and at times thrilling high notes, they are most comfortable singing in the middle of their range, many of the hero roles in the operas of Handel and Monteverdi, originally sung by male castrati, can be successfully sung today by coloratura mezzo-sopranos. Rossini demanded similar qualities for his heroines, and Vivaldi wrote roles frequently for this voice as well. Coloratura mezzo-sopranos also often sing lyric-mezzo-soprano roles or soubrette roles, coloratura mezzo-soprano roles in operas, The lyric mezzo-soprano has a range from approximately the G below middle C to the A two octaves above middle C. This voice has a smooth, sensitive and at times lachrymose quality. Lyric mezzo-sopranos do not have the agility of the coloratura mezzo-soprano or the size of the dramatic mezzo-soprano. The lyric mezzo-soprano is ideal for most trouser roles and this voice has less vocal facility than the coloratura mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
–
Mezzo-soprano voice range (A3–A5) indicated in sheet music (left) and on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C (C4).
27.
Baritone
–
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice types. It is the most common male voice, the baritone voice type is generally divided into the baryton-Martin baritone, lyric baritone, Kavalierbariton, Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, baryton-noble baritone, and the bass-baritone. The first use of the term baritone emerged as baritonans, late in the 15th century, at this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices, but in 17th-century Italy the term was all-encompassing and used to describe the average male choral voice. Baritones took roughly the range as it is today at the beginning of the 18th century. Indeed, many works of the 18th century have roles marked as bass that in reality are low baritone roles. Examples of this are to be found, for instance, in the operas, the greatest and most enduring parts for baritones in 18th-century operatic music were composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They include Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Papageno in The Magic Flute and these included the likes of Filippo Galli, Giovanni Inchindi, and Henri-Bernard Dabadie. The basse-taille and the bass were commonly confused because their roles were sometimes sung by singers of either actual voice part. The bel canto style of vocalism which arose in Italy in the early 19th century supplanted the castrato-dominated opera seria of the previous century and it led to the baritone being viewed as a separate voice category from the bass. More often than not, however, baritones found themselves portraying villains, the principal composers of bel canto opera are considered to be, Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Giacomo Meyerbeer, and the young Giuseppe Verdi. Figaro in Il barbiere is often called the first true baritone role, however, Donizetti and Verdi in their vocal writing went on to emphasize the top fifth of the baritone voice, rather than its lower notes—thus generating a more brilliant sound. The major international baritone of the first half of the 19th century was the Italian Antonio Tamburini and he was a famous Don Giovanni in Mozarts eponymous opera as well as being a Bellini and Donizetti specialist. Commentators praised his voice for its beauty, flexibility and smooth tonal emission, Tamburinis range, however, was probably closer to that of a bass-baritone than to that of a modern Verdi baritone. His French equivalent was Henri-Bernard Dabadie, who was a mainstay of the Paris Opera between 1819 and 1836 and the creator of several major Rossinian baritone roles, including Guillaume Tell. Dabadie sang in Italy, too, where he originated the role of Belcore in Lelisir damore in 1832, the most important of Tamburinis Italianate successors were all Verdians. In France, Paul Barroilhet succeeded Dabadie as the Paris operas best known baritone, like Dabadie, he also sang in Italy and created an important Donizetti role, in his case, Alphonse in La favorite. Antonio Pini-Corsi was the standout Italian buffo baritone in the period between about 1880 and World War I, reveling in comic roles by Rossini, Donizetti and Paer. In 1893, he created the part of Ford in Verdis last opera, notable among their contemporaries were the cultured and technically adroit French baritones Jean Lassalle, Victor Maurel, Paul Lhérie, and Maurice Renaud
Baritone
–
Baritone voice range (A2–A4) indicated in sheet music (left) and on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C (C4).
28.
Conducting
–
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. A conductors directions will almost invariably be supplemented or reinforced by verbal instructions or suggestions to their musicians in rehearsal prior to a performance. The conductor typically stands on a podium with a large music stand for the full score. Conducting while playing a piano or synthesizer may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras, communication is typically non-verbal during a performance. However, in rehearsals, frequent interruptions allow the conductor to give verbal directions as to how the music should be played or sung, Conductors act as guides to the orchestras or choirs they conduct. They choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make adjustments, work out their interpretation. They may also attend to matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions and selecting members. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles such as big bands are usually led by conductors. The principal conductor of an orchestra or opera company is referred to as a music director or chief conductor, or by the German words Kapellmeister or Dirigent. Conductors of choirs or choruses are sometimes referred to as director, chorus master, or choirmaster. Conductors of concert bands, military bands, marching bands and other bands may hold the title of director, bandmaster. Respected senior conductors are sometimes referred to by the Italian word, an early form of conducting is cheironomy, the use of hand gestures to indicate melodic shape. This has been practiced at least as far back as the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, other devices to indicate the passing of time came into use. Rolled up sheets of paper, smaller sticks and unadorned hands are all shown in pictures from this period, the large staff was responsible for the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully, who injured his foot with one while conducting a Te Deum for the Kings recovery from illness. The wound became gangrenous and Lully refused amputation, whereupon the gangrene spread to his leg, in instrumental music throughout the 18th century, a member of the ensemble usually acted as the conductor. This was sometimes the concertmaster, who could use his bow as a baton and it was common to conduct from the harpsichord in pieces that had a basso continuo part. In opera performances, there were sometimes two conductors – the keyboard player was in charge of the singers, and the principal violinist or leader was in charge of the orchestra. By the early 19th century, it became the norm to have a dedicated conductor, the size of the usual orchestra expanded during this period, and the use of a baton became more common, as it was easier to see than bare hands or rolled-up paper
Conducting
–
Steven Sametz conducting the Lehigh University Choir, sans baton
Conducting
Conducting
–
Andrew Lee Neer conducting with a baton in Detroit in 2011
Conducting
–
Giuseppe Verdi conducting his opera
Aida in 1881
29.
Bass (voice type)
–
A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C. Its tessitura, or comfortable range, is defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef. Categories of bass voices vary according to style and classification system. Italians favour subdividing basses into the basso cantante, basso buffo, the American system identifies the bass-baritone, comic bass, lyric bass, and dramatic bass. The German fach system offers further distinctions, Spielbaß, Schwerer Spielbaß, Charakterbaß, rare is the performer who embodies a single fach without also touching repertoire from another category. Cultural influence and individual variation create a variation in range. Many British composers such as Benjamin Britten have written parts for bass that center far higher than the bass tessitura as implied by the clef, the Harvard Dictionary of Music defines the range as being from the E below low C to middle C. The bass has the lowest vocal range of all voice types, the low extreme for basses is generally C2. However, several extreme bass singers, referred to as basso profondos, within opera, the lowest note in the standard bass repertoire is D2, sung by the character Osmin in Mozarts Die Entführung aus dem Serail, but few roles fall below F2. The high extreme, a few roles in the standard repertoire call for a high F♯ or G. In the operatic repertoire, the highest notes are a G♯4 and, in the aria Fra lombre e glorrori in Handels serenata Aci. Basso cantante is a higher, more lyrical voice and it is produced using a more Italianate vocal production, and possesses a faster vibrato, than its closest Germanic/Anglo-Saxon equivalent, the bass-baritone. Hoher Bass or high bass or often a dramatic bass-baritone, jugendlicher Bass denotes the role of a young man sung by a bass, regardless of the age of the singer. They are usually the blustering antagonist of the hero/heroine or the fool in bel canto operas. English equivalent, dramatic bass Basso profondo is the lowest bass voice type, steane in Voices, Singers & Critics, the basso profondo voice derives from a method of tone-production that eliminates the more Italian quick vibrato. In its place is a kind of tonal solidity, a front, which may nevertheless prove susceptible to the other kind of vibrato. Dramatic basso profondo is a basso profondo voice
Bass (voice type)
–
Bass voice range (E2–E4) indicated in sheet music (left) and on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C (C4).
30.
Soprano
–
A soprano is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The sopranos vocal range is from approximately middle C =261 Hz to high A =880 Hz in choral music, in four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto. The lyric soprano is the most common female singing voice, the word soprano comes from the Italian word sopra, as the soprano is the highest pitch human voice, often given to the leading female roles in operas. The term soprano is also based on the Latin word superius which, like soprano, the word superius was especially used in choral and other multi-part vocal music between the 13th and 16th centuries. The soprano has the highest vocal range of all voice types, a soprano and a mezzo-soprano have a similar range, but their tessituras will lie in different parts of that range. The low extreme for sopranos is roughly A3 or B♭3, within opera, the lowest demanded note for sopranos is F3. Often low notes in higher voices will project less, lack timbre, however, rarely is a soprano simply unable to sing a low note in a song within a soprano role. The high extreme, at a minimum, for non-coloratura sopranos is soprano C, a couple of roles have optional E♭6s, as well. In the coloratura repertoire several roles call for E♭6 on up to F6, in rare cases, some coloratura roles go as high as G6 or G♯6, such as Mozarts concert aria Popoli di Tessaglia. Or the title role of Jules Massenets opera Esclarmonde, while not necessarily within the tessitura, a good soprano will be able to sing her top notes full-throated, with timbre and dynamic control. In opera, the tessitura, vocal weight, and timbre of voices, a singers tessitura is where the voice has the best timbre, easy volume, and most comfort. Within the soprano voice type category are five generally recognized subcategories, coloratura soprano, soubrette, lyric soprano, spinto soprano, the coloratura soprano may be a lyric coloratura or a dramatic coloratura. The lyric coloratura soprano is a very agile light voice with a high upper extension capable of fast vocal coloratura, Light coloraturas have a range of approximately middle C to high F with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing somewhat higher or lower. Dramatic coloraturas have a range of approximately low B to high F with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing higher or lower. In classical music and opera, a soubrette soprano refers to both a type and a particular type of opera role. A soubrette voice is light with a bright, sweet timbre, a tessitura in the mid-range, the soubrette voice is not a weak voice, for it must carry over an orchestra without a microphone like all voices in opera. The voice, however, has a lighter weight than other soprano voices with a brighter timbre
Soprano
–
Soprano voice range (C4–C6) indicated in sheet music (left) and on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C.
31.
Valet
–
Valet and varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer. In the United States, the term most often refers to a parking valet, in English, valet as personal man-servant is recorded since 1567, though use of the term in the French-speaking English medieval court is older, and the variant form varlet is cited from 1456. See yeoman, possibly derived from man, a related term. The modern use is usually short for the valet de chambre, since the 16th century, the word has traditionally been pronounced as rhyming with pallet, though an alternative pronunciation, rhyming with chalet, as in French, is now common. The Oxford English Dictionary lists both pronunciations as valid, a valet or gentlemans gentleman is a gentlemans male servant, the closest female equivalent is a ladys maid. The valet performs personal services such as maintaining his employers clothes, running his bath and perhaps shaving his employer. In a great house, the master of the house had his own valet, in a bachelors household the valet might perform light housekeeping duties as well. Valets learned the skills for their role in various ways, others started out as soldier-servants to army officers or stewards to naval officers. Traditionally, a valet did much more than lay out clothes. He was also responsible for making travel arrangements, dealing with any bills, Alexandre Bontemps, the most senior of the thirty-six valets to Louis XIV of France, was a powerful figure, who ran the Château de Versailles. In courts, valet de chambre was a position of status, often given to artists, musicians, poets and others. The role was also, at least during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, valets, like butlers and most specialized domestic staff, have become relatively rare. A more common, though infrequent, arrangement is the general servant performing combined roles. Alfred Pennyworth, valet to Bruce Wayne, created by Bob Kane, hobson, from the comedy film Arthur. Kato, Inspector Clouseaus valet and martial arts partner in the Pink Panther movies, passepartout, in the 1872 novel Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. George, created by Agatha Christie in the Hercule Poirot novels, edward Henry Masterman, the victims valet and a suspect in Agatha Christies Murder on the Orient Express. Figaro, the Count of Almavivas valet from Beaumarchais play The Marriage of Figaro, as well as the Mozart, leporello, valet of Don Giovanni in the opera by Mozart. Giles French in the sitcom Family Affair, probert, valet to Sir William McCordle, and Robert Parks, valet to Lord Stockbridge, in the 2001 film Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman
Valet
–
A 17th-century valet de chambre
Valet
–
Carving of "Bazin", the valet to
Aramis, of
The Three Musketeers, was a studious person who later became a lay brother. (
Thomas Nicholls carves him brushing his master's clothes whilst studying
theology).
32.
Francesco Benucci
–
Francesco Benucci was an outstanding Italian bass/baritone singer of the 18th century. He sang a number of important roles in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and he was born ca.1745 in Livorno and began his early career there around 1768. The start of Benuccis career took place in an already flourishing world of opera buffa, which provided a role type. The historical background is described by Rice, In one of his earliest appearances Benucci sang Tritemio in Il filosofo di campagna. That he began his career in an opera by Galuppi and Goldoni and he performed in Florence in 1769. No record survives of Benuccis activities between spring 1769 and 1774 and he spent the years 1774–1777 in Madrid, and starting in autumn 1777, there is documentation of performances in the major opera houses of Italy, including Venice, Milan, and Rome. In 1783 the Austrian Emperor Joseph II founded a new company specializing in Italian opera buffa. At the time Benucci was singing at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice, Count Giacomo Durazzo, who was both an experienced former theater director and the Emperors ambassador, was able to secure his services. At the same time Durazzo recruited the outstanding English soprano Nancy Storace, Storace was later to sing the role of Susanna when Benucci sang the title role at the premiere of The Marriage of Figaro. Both singers were offered salaries, over 4000 florins. With further recruitment, an ensemble was formed. The new company opened 2 April 1783 with a performance of Antonio Salieris La scuola de gelosi and this opera was an immediate success, with over 25 performances, and a critic wrote, the buffo is so natural that he is regarded as the best ever seen here. The others are not worth mentioning, Mozart evidently attended, and on 7 May wrote home to his father Leopold, The Italian opera buffa has started up here again and is proving very popular. The buffo is particularly good, hes called Benucci, Benucci continued with the Emperors company for a total of twelve years. During his earlier years in Vienna Benucci also performed in concerts in collaboration with Nancy Storace. The diarist Count Zinzendorf noted that each singer served as the others keyboard accompanist, twice during his tenure in Vienna Benucci traveled to perform elsewhere. In 1783 he visited Rome to fulfil a commitment already made when he had hired at Vienna, his enormous popularity there was witnessed by the Emperor. In August 1788, the Emperor, having launched an expensive and futile war with Turkey, on hearing this, Benucci asked for leave and obtained an engagement at the Kings Theatre in London, where he performed with Storace, who had returned there in February 1787
Francesco Benucci
–
Engraved portrait of Francesco Benucci by Friedrich John (de), after a painting by Joseph Dorffmeister, ca. 1800
33.
Page (servant)
–
A page or page boy is traditionally a young male servant, but may also have been used for a messenger at the service of a nobleman. The origin of the term is uncertain, but may come either from the Latin pagus, a page boy is often used as a symbolic attendant during wedding ceremonies to carry the rings, a role comparable to the scattering of flower petals by flower girls. In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a nobleman or a knight, until the age of about seven, sons of noble families would receive training in manners and basic literacy from their mothers or other female relatives. Upon reaching seven years old, a boy would be sent to the castle and this would match the age at which apprenticeships or servants employment would be entered into by young males from lower social classes. A young boy served as a page for about seven years, running messages, serving, cleaning clothing and weapons and he might be required to arm or dress the lord to whom he had been sent by his own family. Personal service of this nature was not considered as demeaning, in the context of shared noble status by page and it was seen rather as a form of education in return for labour. While a page did not receive reimbursement other than clothing, accommodation and food, in return for his work, the page would receive training in horse-riding, hunting, hawking and combat - the essential skills required of adult men of his rank in medieval society. Less physical training included schooling in the playing of instruments, the composition and singing of songs. They also learned courtly manners and, in attending to the needs of their master, at age fourteen, the young noble could graduate to become a squire, and by age 21, perhaps a knight himself. These boys were often the scions of other families who were sent to learn the ways of the manorial system by observation. Their residence in the served as a goodwill gesture between the two families involved and helped them gain social and political contacts for their adult lives. A reference to this kind of page is found in the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslaus, Hither, page and this type of page is almost unheard of today outside of royal residences, although the functions and status of legislative pages are a clear continuation of the earlier role. Until the early 20th century boys of humble background might gain a place in a great house. According to the International Butler Academy, these pages were apprentice footmen, unlike the hall boys, who did heavy work, these pages performed light odd-jobs and stood in attendance wearing livery when guests were being received. During and following the Renaissance it became fashionable for black boys and young men to be decorative pages, placed into fancy costumes and attending fashionable ladies and this custom lasted for several centuries and the African page became a staple accoutrement of baroque and rococo style. Valentine Nwanze played an African page attending James Graham, Marquess of Montrose in the film Rob Roy, koko, the fictional manservant of an opera diva, is cast as her African page in A Nut at the Opera by Maurice Vellekoop. Decorative pages feature in a drawing room scene in Persuasion, while the traditional pages are rare in the modern private workforce, US television network NBCs page program is a notable example of contemporary workplace pages. Page of Honour Page Slave collar
Page (servant)
–
Page Boy with silver collar, Dutch 17th century
34.
En travesti
–
Not to be confused with the South American gender identity term, Travesti. Travesti is a term referring to the portrayal of a character in an opera, play. Some sources regard travesti as an Italian term, some as French, depending on sources, the term may be given as travesty, travesti, or en travesti. Similarly, in the popular genre of Victorian burlesque, there were usually one or more breeches roles. As a boy player, Alexander Cooke is thought to have created many of Shakespeares principal female roles, as well as Agrippina in Ben Jonsons Sejanus His Fall. With the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, women began to appear on the English stage, although some female roles continued to be played by boys and young men, including romantic leads. Edward Kynaston, whose roles included the role in Ben Jonsons Epicoene and Evadne in Beaumont. Londons Shakespeares Globe theatre, a reconstruction of the original Globe Theatre. Toby Cockerell played Katherine of France in the opening production of Henry V in 1997, while Mark Rylance played Cleopatra in the 1999 production of Antony. Travesti roles for men are still to be found in British pantomime, where there is at least one female character traditionally played by a male actor. Castrati, adult males with a singing voice, appeared in the earliest operas – initially in female roles. In the first performance of Monteverdis Orfeo in 1607 the roles of Eurydice, however, by 1680 the castrati had become the predominant singers for leading male roles as well. The use of castrati for both male and female roles was particularly strong in the Papal states, where women were forbidden from public performances until the 19th century. An exception to this practice was in 17th and 18th century French opera where it was traditional to use uncastrated male voices both for the hero and for malevolent female divinities and spirits. In Lullys 1686 opera Armide the hero was sung by a haute-contre while the spirit of hatred was sung by a tenor. In Rameaus 1733 Hippolyte et Aricie, the hero was sung by an haute-contre, the remaining female roles in both operas were sung by women. The title role of the vain but ugly marsh nymph in Rameaus Platée is also for an haute-contre, Female roles in opera sung by men can still be found, although they are not common. Azio Corghis 2005 opera Il dissoluto assolto, which incorporates elements from Mozarts Don Giovanni
En travesti
–
Sarah Bernhardt as
Hamlet
En travesti
–
The famous castrato
Farinelli caricatured in one of his female roles
En travesti
–
The ballerina
Eugénie Fiocre as a
matador circa 1860
En travesti
–
Pierre Jélyotte as the
nymph Plataea in
Rameau 's opera
Platée
35.
Tenor
–
Tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is one of the highest of the male voice types. The tenors vocal range lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, and A4, the A above middle C, in solo work, this range extends up to C5, or tenor high C. The low extreme for tenors is roughly A♭2, at the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to two Fs above middle C. The tenor voice type is divided into the leggero tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor. The name tenor derives from the Latin word tenere, which means to hold, in medieval and Renaissance polyphony between about 1250 and 1500, the tenor was the structurally fundamental voice, vocal or instrumental. All other voices were normally calculated in relation to the tenor, until the late 16th century introduction of the contratenor singers, the tenor was usually the highest voice, assuming the role of providing a foundation. It was also in the 18th century that tenor came to signify the male voice that sang such parts, thus, for earlier repertoire, a line marked tenor indicated the parts role, and not the required voice type. Indeed, even as late as the century, partbooks labelled tenor might contain parts for a range of voice types. The vocal range of the tenor is one of the highest of the voice types. Within opera, the lowest note in the tenor repertoire is probably A♭2 in Rossinis rarely performed La donna del lago in the role of Rodrigo di Dhu. Within more frequently performed repertoire, Mime and Herod both call for an A2, a few tenor roles in the standard repertoire call for a tenor C. Some of the few top Cs in the operatic repertoire are either optional or interpolated by tradition. However, the highest demanded note in the standard operatic repertoire is D5. Some operatic roles for tenors require a darker timbre and fewer high notes, in the leggero repertoire, the highest note is F5, therefore, very few tenors can, given the raising of concert pitch since its composition, have this role in their repertoire without transposition. Within the tenor voice type category are seven generally recognized subcategories, leggero tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, Mozart tenor, Also known as the tenore di grazia, the leggero tenor is essentially the male equivalent of a lyric coloratura. This voice is light, agile, and capable of executing difficult passages of fioritura, the typical leggero tenor possesses a range spanning from approximately C3 to E♭5, with a few being able to sing up to F5 or higher in full voice. In some cases, the chest register of the leggero tenor may extend below C3, voices of this type are utilized frequently in the operas of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and in music dating from the Baroque period. Leggero tenor roles in operas, The lyric tenor is a warm voice with a bright, full timbre that is strong but not heavy
Tenor
–
Tenor voice range (C3–C5) indicated in sheet music (left) and on piano keyboard in green with dot marking middle C (C4).
36.
Anna Gottlieb
–
Maria Anna Josepha Francisca Gottlieb was an Austrian soprano. She was the first Pamina in Mozarts opera The Magic Flute and she was born in Vienna, one of four sisters. Her parents were actors, who worked in the German theatre company of the Nationaltheater, Anna first acted at the Burgtheater at age five. Shortly after she turned 12, she premiered the role of Barbarina in Mozarts The Marriage of Figaro, at fifteen, she appeared in the role of Amande in Paul Wranitzkys Opera Oberon, König der Elfen. This production featured in the role the soprano Josepha Hofer. When Mozart composed The Magic Flute for the Schikaneder company, he chose Gottlieb, aged seventeen, for the role of Pamina. In 1792 Gottlieb moved to the Theater in der Leopoldstadt, where, during the years 1803–17 under the direction of Carl Friedrich Hensler, she was mainstay of the company. She appeared in a number of works, and was admired for her ability to lampoon operatic sopranos. Her greatest success at the Leopoldstadt Theater was in the role of Hulda in Ferdinand Kauers play Das Donauweibchen and her career was interrupted between 1809 and 1813 owing to the Napoleonic wars, and when she returned to the stage her voice had declined. As she aged, she gradually changed roles, eventually becoming a singer playing roles of old women. In 1828 a new director, Rudolf Steinkeller, took over the Leopoldstadt Theater, and she had no pension from her former employer and sank into poverty, appealing in vain from time to time for the Emperor to give her a pension. She was the last singer alive in Vienna who had known Mozart and she seemed to think that she had at least an equal claim with Mozart to be an object of universal veneration. Gottlieb, who never married, died in Vienna at 82 and was buried on 6 February 1856 in the cemetery as Mozart. Except where indicated in footnotes, this article is based on the article Anna Gottlieb in the German Wikipedia, augsburg, Deutsche Mozart-Gesellschaft 1986 ISBN 3-9800945-3-7 Other information is taken from, Höslinger, Clemens, Anna Gottlieb, article in the New Grove Encyclopedia of Opera, online edition. Copyright 2007 by Oxford University Press, raeburn, Christopher, Anna Gottlieb, article in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, online edition. Copyright 2007 by Oxford University Press
Anna Gottlieb
–
1795 watercolor portrait of Anna Gottlieb by Christian Eisemann. She is shown performing in Azemia oder die Wilden in the Leopoldstadt Theater
37.
Choir
–
A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical repertoire, which spans from the Medieval era to the present. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm, a body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus. The former term is often applied to groups affiliated with a church and the second to groups that perform in theatres or concert halls. Choirs may sing without instrumental accompaniment, with the accompaniment of a piano or pipe organ, with a small ensemble, choirs are often led by a conductor or choirmaster. Other than four, the most common number of parts are three, five, six, and eight, choirs can sing with or without instrumental accompaniment. Singing without accompaniment is called a cappella singing, many choirs perform in one or many locations such as a church, opera house, or school hall. In some cases choirs join up to become one mass choir that performs for a special concert, in this case they provide a series of songs or musical works to celebrate and provide entertainment to others. Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as a concert, by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face. The primary duties of the conductor or choirmaster are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble. The conductor or choral director typically stands on a raised platform, many choral conductors use their hands to conduct. In the 2010s, most conductors do not play an instrument when conducting, although in earlier periods of music history. In Baroque music from the 1600s to the 1750s, conductors performing in the 2010s may lead an ensemble while playing a harpsichord or the violin, conducting while playing a piano may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras. Communication is typically non-verbal during a performance, however, in rehearsals, frequent interruptions allow the conductor to give verbal directions as to how the music should be sung. Conductors act as guides to the choirs they conduct and they choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make certain adjustments, work out their interpretation, and relay their vision to the singers. Choral conductors may also have to conduct instrumental ensembles such as if the choir is singing a piece for choir. They may also attend to matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions
Choir
–
Evensong rehearsal in the
quire of
York Minster, showing carved choirstalls
Choir
–
Amelia Nagoski, DMA conducting a choral ensemble at Western New England University
Choir
–
Egyptian Alexandria Jewish choir of Rabbin Moshe Cohen at Samuel Menashe synagogue,
Alexandria, Egypt
Choir
–
An English school choir
38.
Seville
–
Seville is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville, Spain. It is situated on the plain of the river Guadalquivir, the inhabitants of the city are known as sevillanos or hispalenses, after the Roman name of the city, Hispalis. Its Old Town, with an area of 4 square kilometres, the Seville harbour, located about 80 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean, is the only river port in Spain. Seville is also the hottest major metropolitan area in the geographical Western Europe, Seville was founded as the Roman city of Hispalis. It later became known as Ishbiliya after the Muslim conquest in 712, in 1519, Ferdinand Magellan departed from Seville for the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Spal is the oldest known name for Seville and it appears to have originated during the Phoenician colonisation of the Tartessian culture in south-western Iberia and, according to Manuel Pellicer Catalán, meant lowland in the Phoenician language. During Roman rule, the name was Latinised as Hispalis, nO8DO is the official motto of Seville. It is popularly believed to be a rebus signifying the Spanish No me ha dejado, meaning It has not abandoned me, the eight in the middle represents a madeja, or skein of wool. The emblem is present on the flag and features on city property such as manhole covers. Seville is approximately 2,200 years old, the passage of the various civilisations instrumental in its growth has left the city with a distinct personality, and a large and well-preserved historical centre. The city was known from Roman times as Hispalis, important archaeological remains also exist in the nearby towns of Santiponce and Carmona. The walls surrounding the city were built during the rule of Julius Caesar. Following Roman rule, there were successive conquests of the Roman province of Hispania Baetica by the Vandals, the Suebi, Seville was taken by the Moors, Muslims from North of Africa, during the conquest of Hispalis in 712. It was the capital for the kings of the Umayyad Caliphate, the Moorish urban influences continued and are present in contemporary Seville, for instance in the custom of decorating with herbaje and small fountains the courtyards of the houses. However, most buildings of the Moorish aesthetic actually belong to the Mudéjar style of Islamic art, developed under Christian rule and inspired by the Arabic style. Original Moorish buildings are the Patio del Yeso in the Alcázar, the city walls, in 1247, the Christian King Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon began the conquest of Andalusia. The decisive action took place in May 1248 when Ramon Bonifaz sailed up the Guadalquivir, the city surrendered on 23 November 1248. The citys development continued after the Castilian conquest in 1248, Public buildings constructed including churches, many of which were built in the Mudéjar style, and the Seville Cathedral, built during the 15th century with Gothic architecture
Seville
–
Clockwise from top:
St. Mary of the See Cathedral and
Giralda,
Plaza de España in the
Maria Luisa Park,
Metropol Parasol, the Isabel II ("
Triana ") bridge and the
Torre del Oro.
Seville
–
Flag
Seville
–
View of the
Giralda from the Patio de Banderas (Courtyard of Flags), historic square with remains of Roman, Moorish and Castilian periods.
Seville
–
Cathedral of Saint Mary from Constitución Avenue
39.
Droit du seigneur
–
Droit du seigneur, also known as ius primae noctis, refers to a supposed legal right in medieval Europe, and elsewhere, allowing feudal lords to have sexual relations with subordinate women. There is no evidence of the right being exercised in medieval Europe, the French expression droit du seigneur translates as right of the lord, but native French prefer the terms droit de jambage or droit de cuissage. The term is used synonymously with jus primae noctis, Latin for right of the first night. The medieval marriage fine or merchet has been interpreted as a payment for the droit de seigneur to be waived, the supposed right was abolished by Ferdinand II of Aragon in Article 9 the Sentencia Arbitral de Guadalupe of 1486. In 1527, Scottish historian Hector Boece wrote that the right had existed in Scotland until abolished by Malcolm III, William Blackstone mentioned the custom in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, echoing Boeces claim. The right was mentioned in 1556 in the Recueil darrêts notables des cours souveraines de France of French lawyer, voltaire mentioned the practice in his Dictionnaire philosophique, published in 1764. In The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in 1884, paolo Mantegazza, in his 1935 book The Sexual Relations of Mankind, stated his belief that while not a law, it was most likely a binding custom. As late as the century, some Kurdish chieftains in Anatolia reserved the right to bed Armenian brides on their wedding night. In the Hawaiian Islands, marriage in the Western sense did not exist until the arrival of Christian missionaries, the privilege for chiefs was often observed, according to Sexual Behavior in Pre Contact Hawai‘i by Milton Diamond. A young girls parents viewed the coupling with favor, if she were lucky, she might conceive his offspring and be allowed to keep it. When western ships arrived, young girls and wives eagerly coupled with sailors who, given their weapons, in Epic of Gilgamesh, king Gilgamesh is abusing his power by having right of first night. In the Ulster Cycle, the king Conchobar is placed in the position of having to bed Cú Chulainns wife to avoid challenges to his authority. Rashi, the 11th century rabbi, in his commentary on Genesis 6, the Talmud in tractate Ketubot discusses what may be done in a situation where a bride must Have relations first with the Hegemon. In the fourteenth-century French epic, Baudouin de Sebourc, a tyrannical lord claims the jus primae noctis unless he receives part of the brides dowry, jack Cade mentions the custom in Shakespeares Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene VII. Voltaire wrote the five-act comedy Le droit du seigneur or Lécueil du sage in 1762, although it was not performed until 1779, the Marriage of Figaro by Beaumarchais whose plot centres on Count Almavivas foiled attempt to exercise his right with Figaros bride. The Duke in Verdis Rigoletto and Don Giovanni in Mozarts Don Giovanni act in a way that perpetuates this custom. In The Adolescent, Fyodor Dostoevsky writes from a translation by Andrew MacAndrew, Yes, although Miss Sapozhkov was passed over, adventure Eight, Mary Ann and The Duke in Eric Knights The Flying Yorkshireman has the nobleman negotiating for an alternative to his allegedly obligatory drewit de segner. The War Lord, a film by Franklin J. Schaffner, starring Charlton Heston as a knight who falls in love with a peasant woman, based on Leslie Stevens play The Lovers
Droit du seigneur
–
Vasily Polenov: Le droit du Seigneur (1874). A nineteenth-century artist's painting of an old man bringing his young daughters to their feudal lord.
Droit du seigneur
–
The
Mugnaia in
Ivrea
40.
Musopen
–
Musopen Inc. is a 501 non-profit organization located in Tarzana, California, launched by Aaron Dunn in 2005. It aims to set free by providing music to the public free of charge. Some content is free of charge with limitations and registration is required. Musopen provides a library of public domain music recordings and sheet music. It also raises money to finance classical music recordings which are released into the public domain, in 2008, Musopen released newly commissioned recordings of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas into the public domain. In 2010, the organized a fundraiser via Kickstarter to commission recordings of a larger repertoire, raising a total of $68,359. In July 2012, Musopen announced that the editing of the recordings was finished, after which the files were uploaded to its website. The final list of music was announced in August 2012, in September 2013, a new Kickstarter fundraiser was launched by Musopen to record the complete works of Frédéric Chopin. The fundraiser was successful, exceeding the goal of $75,000 by over $15,000. All recording for this project has been finished and editing was completed in April 2015, Musopen operates under a freemium model, in that some content is available free of charge, but premium downloads require a subscription. Sheet music is available for download to all for free, and recordings can be played using an HTML5 or Flash player
Musopen
–
Musopen homepage
41.
Key (music)
–
In music theory, the key of a piece is a group of pitches, or scale upon which a music composition is created in classical, Western art, and Western pop music. Notes and chords other than the tonic in a piece create varying degrees of tension, the key may be in the major or minor mode, although major is assumed in a phrase like this piece is in C. Popular songs are usually in a key, and so is classical music during the common practice period, longer pieces in the classical repertoire may have sections in contrasting keys. Methods that establish the key for a piece can be complicated to explain. The key signature is not always a reliable guide to the key of a written piece, occasionally, a piece in a mode such as Mixolydian or Dorian is written with a major or minor key signature appropriate to the tonic, and accidentals throughout the piece. Pieces in modes not corresponding to major or minor keys may sometimes be referred to as being in the key of the tonic. A piece using some type of harmony, resolving e. g. to A. An instrument may be said to be in a key, an unrelated usage referring to the pitches considered natural for that instrument. For example, modern trumpets are usually in the key of B♭, a key relationship is the relationship between keys, measured by common tones and nearness on the circle of fifths. The key usually identifies the tonic note and/or chord, the note and/or major or minor triad that represents the point of rest for a piece. For example, the key of G includes the following pitches, G, A, B, C, D, E, and F♯, and its corresponding tonic chord is G—B—D. Most often at the beginning and end of traditional pieces during the common practice period, a key may be major or minor. Music can be described as being in the Dorian mode, or Phrygian, languages other than English may use other key naming systems. Although many musicians confuse key with scale, a scale is a set of notes typically used in a key, while the key is the center of gravity. All of these notes and chords, however, are used in patterns that serve to establish the primacy of the tonic note. Cadences are particularly important in the establishment of key, even cadences that do not include the tonic note or triad, such as half cadences and deceptive cadences, serve to establish key because those chord sequences imply a unique diatonic context. Short pieces may stay in a single key throughout, more elaborate pieces may establish the main key, then modulate to another key, or a series of keys, then back to the original key. In the Baroque it was common to repeat a phrase of music, called a ritornello
Key (music)
–
Perfect authentic cadence (V-I [here in
V7 -I form] with roots in the bass and tonic in the highest voice of the final chord):
ii-V7-I progression in C Play (
help ·
info).
42.
D major
–
D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F♯, G, A, B, and C♯. Its key signature consists of two sharps and its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor. D major is well-suited to violin music because of the structure of the instrument, the open strings resonate sympathetically with the D string, producing a sound that is especially brilliant. This is also the case all other orchestral strings. It is appropriate for music, with drop D tuning making two Ds available as open strings. Even so, the clarinet in B-flat is still used for music in D major. The vast majority of tin whistles are in D, since they are used in music with fiddles. It is a key for Pub session playing. Many trumpet sonatas were in D major, too, such as those by Corelli, Petronio Franceschini, Purcell, the Trumpet Shall Sound and the Hallelujah chorus from Handels Messiah, and his coronation anthem Zadok the Priest are in D major. 23 of Haydns 104 symphonies are in D major, making it the most often used main key of his symphonies, the vast majority of Mozarts unnumbered symphonies are in D major, namely K. 66c, 81/73, 97/73m, 95/73n, 120/111a and 161/163/141a. The symphony evolved from the overture, and D major was by far the most common key for overtures in the half of the eighteenth century. Famous symphonies written in D major include Mozarts symphonies No.31,38, Beethovens No.2 Op.36, Brahmss No.2 Op.73, Sibeliuss No.2 Op.43, Mahlers No.9 and Prokofievs No.1 Op.25. Scriabin considered D major to be golden in color and, in a discussion with Rimsky-Korsakov, key Major and minor Chord Chord names and symbols Media related to D major at Wikimedia Commons
D major
–
D major
43.
Tempo
–
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece or subsection thereof, how fast or slow. Tempo may be separated from articulation, or articulation may be indicated along with tempo, while the ability to hold a steady tempo is a desirable skill, tempo is changeable, and often indicated by a conductor or drummer. While practicing, an electronic or mechanical device, a metronome, may indicate the tempo, in other words, it is the speed at which a passage of music is or should be played. A piece of musics tempo is written at the start of the score. This means that a note value is specified as the beat. The greater the number of beats per minute, the smaller the amount of time between successive beats, and thus faster a piece must be played. For example, a tempo of 60 beats per minute signifies one beat per second, while a tempo of 120 beats per minute is twice as rapid, signifying one beat every 0.5 seconds. Beethoven was one of the first composers to use the metronome, with the advent of modern electronics, bpm became an extremely precise measure. Music sequencers use the bpm system to denote tempo, instead of beats per minute, some 20th-century composers specify the total playing time for a piece, from which the performer can derive tempo. Tempo is as crucial in contemporary music as it is in classical, in electronic dance music, accurate knowledge of a tunes bpm is important to DJs for the purposes of beatmatching. Some musical pieces do not have a mathematical time indication, in classical music it is customary to describe the tempo of a piece by one or more words. Before the metronome, it was difficult to specify the tempo of a composition, yet, after the metronomes invention, musicians continued to use these words, often additionally indicating the mood of the piece. This blurred the distinction between tempo and mood indicators. For example, presto and allegro both indicate a speedy execution, but allegro also connotes joy, presto, on the other hand, simply indicates speed. Additional Italian words also indicate tempo and mood, for example, the agitato in the Allegro agitato of the last movement of George Gershwins piano concerto in F has both a tempo indication and a mood indication. In some cases, the conventions that governed musical composition were so strong that composers didnt need to indicate tempo, for example, the first movement of Bachs Brandenburg Concerto No.3 has no tempo or mood indication whatsoever. To provide movement names, publishers of recordings resort to ad hoc measures, for marking the Brandenburg movement Allegro. In Renaissance music, performers understood most music to flow at a tempo defined by the tactus, the mensural time signature indicated which note value corresponded to the tactus
Tempo
–
Electronic metronome, Wittner model
Tempo
–
The first two measures of
Mozart 's
Sonata K. 331, which indicates the tempo as "Andante grazioso" (Italian for "at walking pace, graceful") and a modern editormarking: " ♪ = 120". Play (
help ·
info)
44.
Cavatina
–
Cavatina is a musical term, originally meaning a short song of simple character, without a second strain or any repetition of the air. It is now applied to any simple, melodious air, as distinguished from brilliant arias or recitatives. One famous cavatina is the 5th movement of Beethovens String Quartet in B-flat major, ecco, ridente in cielo from Gioachino Rossinis opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Porgi amor and Se vuol ballare from Mozarts The Marriage of Figaro are also well-known cavatinas. Probably the most popular cavatina is a melody for guitar by Stanley Myers that was subsequently used as the theme for The Deer Hunter. It developed in the century, coincident with the decline of the previously favoured da capo aria. Examples occur in the operas of Mozart, Weber, and Rossini, in 19th-century bel canto operas of Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi the term came to refer to a principal singer’s opening aria, whether in one movement or paired with a contrasting cabaletta
Cavatina
–
v
45.
Se vuol ballare
–
The cavatina Se vuol ballare is an aria for baritone or bass from the first act of the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte based on a comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée. The Italian title means If you want to dance, Figaro sings of how he will unravel the counts schemes and thwart him. Written a mere three years before the French Revolution, it can also be read as an attack on the power-wielding nobility of the time. Beethoven wrote a series of 12 variations for piano and violin, WoO40, Se vuol ballare, Score in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe Accessible arias, Se vuol ballare by Emma Beatty, Royal Opera House,15 February 2011
Se vuol ballare
–
Biography
46.
Nellie Melba
–
Dame Nellie Melba GBE, born Helen Porter Mitchell, was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and she was the first Australian to achieve international recognition as a classical musician. She took the pseudonym Melba from Melbourne, her home town, Melba studied singing in Melbourne and made a modest success in performances there. After a brief and unsuccessful marriage, she moved to Europe in search of a singing career, failing to find engagements in London in 1886, she studied in Paris and soon made a great success there and in Brussels. Returning to London she quickly established herself as the lyric soprano at Covent Garden from 1888. She soon achieved success in Paris and elsewhere in Europe. Her repertoire was small, in her career she sang no more than 25 roles and was closely identified with only ten. She was known for her performances in French and Italian opera, during the First World War, Melba raised large sums for war charities. She returned to Australia frequently during the 20th century, singing in opera and concerts and she was active in the teaching of singing at the Melbourne Conservatorium. Melba continued to sing until the last months of her life and her death, in Australia, was news across the English-speaking world, and her funeral was a major national event. Melba was born in Richmond, Victoria, the eldest of seven children of the builder David Mitchell, Mitchell, a Scot, had emigrated to Australia in 1852, becoming a successful builder. Melba was taught to play the piano and first sang in public around age six and she was educated at a local boarding school and then at the Presbyterian Ladies College. She studied singing with Mary Ellen Christian and Pietro Cecchi, an Italian tenor, in her teens, Melba continued to perform in amateur concerts in and around Melbourne, and she played the organ at church. Her father encouraged her in her studies, but he strongly disapproved of her taking up singing as a career. Melbas mother died suddenly in 1881 at Richmond, Melbas father moved the family to Mackay, Queensland, where he built a new sugar mill. Melba soon became popular in Mackay society for her singing and piano-playing, on 22 December 1882 in Brisbane, she married Charles Nesbitt Frederick Armstrong, the youngest son of Sir Andrew Armstrong. They had one child, a son, George, born on 16 October 1883, the marriage was not a success, Charles reportedly beat his wife more than once. The couple separated after just over a year, and Melba returned to Melbourne determined to pursue a singing career, debuting professionally in concerts in 1884
Nellie Melba
–
Nellie Melba, 1902, by
Henry Walter Barnett
Nellie Melba
–
Melba, drawn by Frank Haviland
Nellie Melba
–
Philippe, Duke of Orléans
Nellie Melba
–
Melba as Marguerite in
Faust
47.
Seal (emblem)
–
A seal is a device for making an impression in wax, clay, paper, or some other medium, including an embossment on paper, and is also the impression thus made. The original purpose was to authenticate a document, a wrapper for one such as a modern envelope, the seal-making device is also referred to as the seal matrix or die, the imprint it creates as the seal impression. In most traditional forms of dry seal the design on the matrix is in intaglio. The design on the impression will reverse that of the matrix and this will not be the case if paper is embossed from behind, where the matrix and impression read the same way, and both matrix and impression are in relief. However engraved gems were carved in relief, called cameo in this context. The process is essentially that of a mould and these pendent seal impressions dangled below the documents they authenticated, to which the attachment tag was sewn or otherwise attached. Some jurisdictions consider rubber stamps or specified signature-accompanying words such as seal or L. S. to be the equivalent of, i. e. an equally effective substitute for. In Europe, although coats of arms and heraldic badges may well feature in such contexts as well as on seals, the study of seals is known as sigillography or sphragistics. Seals were used in the earliest civilizations and are of importance in archaeology. In ancient Mesopotamia carved or engraved cylinder seals in stone or other materials were used and these could be rolled along to create an impression on clay, and used as labels on consignments of trade goods, or for other purposes. They are normally hollow and it is presumed that they were worn on a string or chain round the neck, many have only images, often very finely carved, with no writing, while others have both. From Ancient Egypt seals in the form of signet-rings, including some with the names of kings, have been found, recently, seals have come to light in South Arabia datable to the Himyarite age. One example shows a name written in Aramaic engraved in reverse so as to read correctly in the impression, from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC until the Middle Ages, seals of various kinds were in production in the Aegean islands and mainland Greece. In the Early Minoan age these were formed of stone and ivory. By the Middle Minoan age a new set for seal forms, motifs, hard stone requires new rotary carving techniques. The Late Bronze Age is the par excellence of the lens-shaped seal and the seal ring. These were a luxury art form and became keenly collected. His collection fell as booty to Pompey the Great, who deposited it in a temple in Rome, engraved gems continued to be produced and collected until the 19th century
Seal (emblem)
–
Present-day impression of a Late Bronze Age seal
Seal (emblem)
–
Town seal (matrix) of
Náchod from 1570
Seal (emblem)
–
Mesopotamian limestone
cylinder seal and impression—worship of
Shamash
Seal (emblem)
–
A Baiwen name seal, read up-down-right-left: Ye Hao Min Yin (lit. "Seal of Ye Haomin")
48.
Flute
–
The flute is a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening, according to the instrument classification of Hornbostel–Sachs, flutes are categorized as edge-blown aerophones. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a player, flautist, flutist or, less commonly. Flutes are the earliest extant musical instruments, as paleolithic instruments with hand-bored holes have been found, a number of flutes dating to about 43,000 to 35,000 years ago have been found in the Swabian Jura region of present-day Germany. These flutes demonstrate that a musical tradition existed from the earliest period of modern human presence in Europe. Flutes, including the famous Bansuri, have been a part of Indian classical music since 1500 BC. A major deity of Hinduism, Krishna, has been associated with the flute, the English verb flout has the same linguistic root, and the modern Dutch verb fluiten still shares the two meanings. Attempts to trace the word back to the Latin flare have been pronounced phonologically impossible or inadmissable, the first known use of the word flute was in the 14th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this was in Geoffrey Chaucers The Hous of Fame, today, a musician who plays any instrument in the flute family can be called a flutist, or flautist, or simply a flute player. Flutist dates back to at least 1603, the earliest quote cited by the Oxford English Dictionary, flautist was used in 1860 by Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Marble Faun, after being adopted during the 18th century from Italy, like many musical terms in England since the Italian Renaissance. Other English terms, now obsolete, are fluter and flutenist. The oldest flute ever discovered may be a fragment of the femur of a cave bear. In 2008 another flute dated back to at least 35,000 years ago was discovered in Hohle Fels cave near Ulm, the five-holed flute has a V-shaped mouthpiece and is made from a vulture wing bone. The researchers involved in the officially published their findings in the journal Nature. The flute, one of several found, was found in the Hohle Fels cavern next to the Venus of Hohle Fels, on announcing the discovery, scientists suggested that the finds demonstrate the presence of a well-established musical tradition at the time when modern humans colonized Europe. Scientists have also suggested that the discovery of the flute may help to explain the probable behavioural and cognitive gulf between Neanderthals and early modern human. A three-holed flute,18.7 cm long, made from a mammoth tusk was discovered in 2004, the earliest extant Chinese transverse flute is a chi flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty and it is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends and has five stops that are at the flutes side instead of the top
Flute
–
A selection of flutes from around the world
Flute
–
Chinese women playing flutes, from the 12th-century
Song dynasty remake of the Night Revels of Han Xizai, originally by
Gu Hongzhong (10th century)
Flute
–
Panflute players.
Cantigas de Santa Maria, mid-13th century, Spain
Flute
–
Statue of
Krishna playing a flute
49.
Oboe
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Oboes /ˈoʊboʊ/ OH-boh are a family of double reed woodwind musical instruments. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range, oboes are usually made of wood, but there are also oboes made of synthetic materials. A soprano oboe measures roughly 65 cm long, with keys, a conical bore. Sound is produced by blowing into the reed and vibrating a column of air, the distinctive oboe tone is versatile, and has been described as bright. When the term oboe is used alone, it is taken to mean the standard treble instrument rather than other instruments of the family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called a hautbois, hoboy. The spelling of oboe was adopted into English c.1770 from the Italian oboè, a musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist or simply an oboe player. In comparison to other woodwind instruments, the treble oboe is sometimes referred to as having a clear. The Sprightly Companion, a book published by Henry Playford in 1695, describes the oboe as Majestical and Stately. Humorously, the sound of the oboe is described in the play Angels in America as like that of a if the duck were a songbird. The rich timbre of the oboe is derived from its conical bore, as a result, oboes are readily audible over other instruments in large ensembles. The highest note of the oboe is a lower than the nominally highest note of the B♭ clarinet. Since the clarinet has a range of notes, the lowest note of the B♭ clarinet is significantly deeper than the lowest note of the oboe. Music for the oboe is written in concert pitch. Orchestras normally tune to a concert A played by the oboe, according to the League of American Orchestras, this is done because the pitch of the oboe is secure and its penetrating sound makes it ideal for tuning purposes. The pitch of the oboe is affected by the way in which the reed is made. The reed has a significant effect on the sound of the instrument, Variations in cane and other construction materials, the age of the reed, and differences in scrape and length all affect the pitch of the instrument. German and French reeds, for instance, differ in many ways, weather conditions such as temperature and humidity also affect the pitch
Oboe
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A modern oboe with a reed
Oboe
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Classical oboe, copy by Sand Dalton of an original by Johann Friedrich Floth, c. 1805
Oboe
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The members of the oboe family from top:
heckelphone,
bass oboe,
cor anglais,
oboe d'amore, regular oboe, and
piccolo oboe
Oboe
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Oboist
Albrecht Mayer preparing reeds for use. Most oboists scrape their own reeds to achieve the desired tone and response
50.
Clarinet
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The clarinet is a musical-instrument family belonging to the group known as the woodwind instruments. It has a mouthpiece, a straight cylindrical tube with an almost cylindrical bore. A person who plays a clarinet is called a clarinetist, the word clarinet may have entered the English language via the French clarinette, or from Provençal clarin, oboe. It would seem however that its roots are to be found amongst some of the various names for trumpets used around the renaissance. Clarion, clarin and the Italian clarino are all derived from the medieval term claro which referred to a form of trumpet. This is probably the origin of the Italian clarinetto, itself a diminutive of clarino, according to Johann Gottfried Walther, writing in 1732, the reason for the name is that it sounded from far off not unlike a trumpet. The English form clarinet is found as early as 1733, while the similarity in sound between the earliest clarinets and the trumpet may hold a clue to its name, other factors may have been involved. The trumpet parts that required this speciality were known by the term clarino, Johann Christoph Denner is generally believed to have invented the clarinet in Germany around the year 1700 by adding a register key to the earlier chalumeau. Over time, additional keywork and airtight pads were added to improve the tone and these days the most popular clarinet is the B♭ clarinet. However, the clarinet in A, just a lower, is commonly used in orchestral music. Since the middle of the 19th century the clarinet has become an essential addition to the orchestra. The clarinet family ranges from the BBB♭ octo-contrabass to the A♭ piccolo clarinet, the clarinet has proved to be an exceptionally flexible instrument, equally at home in the classical repertoire as in concert bands, military bands, marching bands, klezmer, and jazz. The cylindrical bore is primarily responsible for the clarinets distinctive timbre, the tone quality can vary greatly with the musician, the music, the instrument, the mouthpiece, and the reed. The most prominent were the German/Viennese traditions and the French school, the latter was centered on the clarinetists of the Conservatoire de Paris. The proliferation of recorded music has made examples of different styles of clarinet playing available, the modern clarinetist has a diverse palette of acceptable tone qualities to choose from. The A clarinet and B♭ clarinet have nearly the same bore, orchestral players using the A and B♭ instruments in the same concert could use the same mouthpiece for both. The A and the B♭ instruments have nearly identical tonal quality, the tone of the E♭ clarinet is brighter than that of the lower clarinets and can be heard even through loud orchestral or concert band textures. The bass clarinet has a deep, mellow sound, while the alto clarinet is similar in tone to the bass
Clarinet
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Bass clarinet
Clarinet
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Written range (though it is possible to play higher):
Clarinet
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Sound wave propagation in the soprano clarinet
Clarinet
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Schüller's quarter-tone clarinet
