b. 1945 American soprano Norman made her operatic debut in 1969 in Berlin as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, followed by Mozart’s Countess (The Marriage of Figaro), which she recorded under Colin Davis. Debuts followed in 1972 at La Scala (Aida) and Covent Garden (Berlioz’s Cassandra in The Trojans), and in 1983 she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera (Cassandra, then Dido). ...
b. 1945, American Boasting one of the most magnificent voices of her generation, Norman has received praise for her operatic, concert and recital performances. A scholarship student at Howard University at the age of 16, she then studied at the Peabody Institute and received her Masters Degree at the University of Michigan. Her 1969 operatic debut as ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1938) Blake grew up as a traditional bluegrass musician in Georgia, but in 1963 he moved to Nashville, where he joined The Johnny Cash Show and recorded with Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson. His combination of virtuoso skills, a traditional background and collaborations with innovators led to dozens of albums under his own ...
(Producer, songwriter, b. 1943) Whitfield joined Motown as a writer, but his willingness to experiment with other sounds and genres as a producer made him a key player in the growth of Motown beyond its early pop-soul identity. His biggest impact was with The Temptations, whose move to psychedelic soul he directed. He left Motown in 1975 ...
‘Spirit In The Sky’, 1970 A UK and US No. 1, ‘Spirit In The Sky’ was Greenbaum’s first solo hit after performing in some short-lived groups, and a number of singles from the Spirit In The Sky LP came to very little. Intended as a commentary on contemporary religious beliefs, it was to be his only hit. Further ...
1918–2005 Swedish soprano Nilsson made her debut as Agathe (Der Freischütz) in Stockholm in 1946. She sang many German and Italian roles there before her Glyndebourne debut as Mozart’s Elettra (Idomeneo) in 1951. In the 1950s she became known as a Wagner specialist, singing regularly at Bayreuth 1957–70. She frequently appeared at Covent Garden from 1957, singing Turandot, ...
1918–2005, Swedish Nilsson’s impressive soprano voice boasted a focused yet powerful sound and an amplitude that could ride the grandest of Wagnerian climaxes with ease. Among Nilsson’s most famous performances were her legendary 1950s and 1960s portrayals of Brünnhilde and Isolde. Both of these roles were recorded, with Karl Böhm conducting. She was equally powerful in roles such as ...
b. 1954 British composer Born in England to Scottish parents, Weir studied privately with Tavener and at Cambridge University. Various world traditions have informed the narratives of her operas, such as A Night at the Chinese Opera (1987, a Chinese Yuan Dynasty drama), The Vanishing Bridegroom (1990, a story from the Scottish west highlands) and Miss Fortune ...
Baritones Baritones, it is said, sing and act, while tenors merely sing. That may tell us more about the roles they take than about the singers themselves, but certainly the finest baritones excel in both skills, none more than Tito Gobbi, whose most noted roles were Falstaff in Verdi’s eponymous opera, and Scarpia in ...
‘Medieval’ as a concept is very hard to define, and the period itself is just as difficult to delineate. It was a term invented by Renaissance writers who wished to make a distinction between their modernity and what had gone before. Although the onset of the Renaissance is often taken to be around the beginning of the fourteenth century, ...
The most influential country act of 2001 was a band that didn’t even exist. The Soggy Bottom Boys were the prime attraction on O Brother, Where Art Thou ? the soundtrack album that topped the country and pop charts and sold more than four million copies. The group revived the late 1930s and early 1940s sound when old-time string-band music ...
Country music has been euphemistically called ‘white man’s blues’ or ‘the poetry of the common man’. While both descriptions have elements of truth, neither is quite accurate. It is, in fact, a broad, nebulous, over-reaching category with no exact boundaries or parameters. Over the decades country music has grown to encompass a greatly varied assortment of ...
The seven centuries covered here saw, essentially, the making of modern Europe. They saw the rise of the papacy and its numerous conflicts. They saw the shaping and reshaping of nations and empires. Yet beyond, and often because of, these conflicts and changes, they also saw the formation of great cultures. As nation met nation in ...
Rock, jazz, soul; each of these genres, while containing a multiplicity of various offshoots, is defined by some kind of unifying theme. But this miscellaneous section, as any record collector will know, is where everything else ends up. Most of the styles within this ‘genre’ have little in common save the fact that they do ...
(Piano, 1909–56) In the arms race of virtuosity that drove jazz in the 1930s, no player was more dazzling than Art Tatum. The piano had a history of virtuosos, but none approached the levels of sheer athletic aptitude that Tatum tossed off with such nonchalance. It came so naturally that he often seemed bored by his own wizardry ...
AUTHORITATIVE
An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.