AUTHORITATIVE | CURATED | First 500 words Free

• Personalities
• Classical
• Modern Era
• Singer

1890–1957 Italian tenor Gigli made his debut in Italy in 1914, and sang Faust in Boito’s Mefistofele at Bologna and Naples the following year. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in Mefistofele in 1920. The operas in which he appeared at the ‘Met’, where he sang for 12 seasons, included La bohème, Ponchielli’s La gioconda and Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine. ...

• Personalities
• Modern Era
• Opera

1890–1957, Italian Caruso’s successor at the Met, Gigli possessed a lighter but sweeter voice, and with the advent of recording he actually became more popular than his predecessor. Rodolfo in La bohème and Nemorino in Don Pasquale were perfect for his effortless tone. Gigli’s association with the Met began in 1920 but, due to a salary dispute ...

• Personalities
• Modern Era
• Opera

1898–1937, American On the night of 12 February 1924, Gershwin became an instant sensation when performing his Rhapsody in Blue at New York’s Aeolian Hall. Written in less than a month and advertised as ‘An Experiment in Modern Music’, Rhapsody melded Classical structures with jazz, ragtime and the blues, heralding a new era in American music. While ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Modern Era
• Singer

1895–1962 Norwegian soprano After many years performing in Scandinavia, Flagstad made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1935 as Wagner’s Sieglinde. Before and after World War II she sang at Covent Garden, and gave the first performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs at the Royal Albert Hall under Furtwängler in 1950. She was the leading Wagnerian soprano of her day. ...

• The Voice
• Modern Era
• Opera

The advent of recordings certainly made opera accessible to many more people than ever before, and Enrico Caruso (1873–1921) was single-handedly responsible for the proliferation of his art via this medium. By the end of his life, he had made over 250 recordings. When the film world finally developed talkies, opera once again stepped to the fore, ...

• Personalities
• Opera
• Turn of the Century

1866–1950, Italian It was the intention of Francesco Cilea’s father that his son should enter the legal profession. It was not to be, however, and under the tutelage of Paolo Serrao, Beniamino Cesi and Giuseppe Martucci at the Naples Conservatory, he quickly made a name for himself. His first opera, Gina (1889), was performed during ...