Premiered: 1647, Paris Libretto by Francesco Buti Prologue The figure of Vittoria (Victory) and French soldiers sing of their victories and the power of their kingdom. Act I Euridice and her father, Endimione, consult a soothsayer regarding her forthcoming wedding to Orfeo. The omens are bad. Orfeo and Euridice celebrate their love for each other, while Aristeo ...
c. 1597–1653, Italian Luigi Rossi served for a time at the Neapolitan court before joining the Borghese family in his native city of Rome in 1621. Twenty years later, he entered the service of the Barberini family, who were influential patrons of opera. Rossi’s first opera, Il palazzo incantato (‘The Enchanted Palace’, 1642), received its first performance ...
(Loo-e’-je Rôs’-se) 1598–1653 Italian composer Rossi was one of the early Roman composers of opera and cantata. After studying in Naples he entered the service of the Borghese family in Rome in 1621. In 1633 he was appointed organist of S Luigi dei Francesi and in 1641 moved to the Barberinis. His first opera, Il palazzo incantato (‘The Enchanted Palace’), was ...
(Jo-van’-e Per-loo-e’-je da Pa-les-tre’-na) 1525/6–94 Italian composer Palestrina is named after a small town near Rome, where he is thought to have been born. He was educated in Rome; in 1537 he was a choirboy at the basilica of S Maria Maggiore, one of the city’s principal churches and an important musical establishment. By 1544 he was back in Palestrina ...
The twin-guitar partnership of Francis Rossi (b. 1949) and Rick Parfitt (b. 1948) has been at the heart of Status Quo since 1967. Francis Rossi (originally known as Mike) was born in Forest Hill, London. He formed the band that evolved into Status Quo with bassist Alan Lancaster while at school in 1962. Rick Parfitt, born Richard Harrison in ...
(Sa-la-mo’-na Rôs’-se) c. 1570–c. 1630 Italian composer Rossi was a Mantuan composer, teacher and instrumentalist associated with the court music of Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga. He lived in the Jewish quarter of Mantua, where he may have died after the city was sacked in 1630. His five books of madrigals are progressive in their requirement of an instrumental bass with and ...
(Loo-e’-ge Bok-ker-e’-ne) 1743–1805 Italian composer The son of a musician in Lucca, Boccherini was trained by his father and in Rome as a composer and cellist. He made his debut at the age of 13 and undertook several journeys to play in Vienna. In 1766 he went on a concert tour which took him to Paris and Madrid, where he ...
(Loo-e’-je Ka-roo-be’-ne) 1760–1842 Italian composer and teacher Cherubini was a dominant figure in French musical life, particularly as a composer of operas, but also as director of the Paris Conservatoire. He studied with Giuseppe Sarti in Bologna and Milan (1778–81) before returning to his native Florence. After a brief period in London, where he composed La finta principessa (‘The ...
(Jo-ak-ke’-no Ros-se’-ne) 1792–1868 Italian composer Rossini dominated Italian opera during the first half of the nineteenth century, writing nearly 40 operas in less than 20 years. He established new conventions in the genre, and was the first Italian composer to abandon unaccompanied recitative in an attempt to create a more continuous flow in the music. He also developed rhythm and ...
In the twentieth century, some musicians became interested in inventing new acoustic instruments that could take music beyond the tuning systems, scales and harmonic language inherent in the instruments commonly played in western classical music. Creating new instruments created a revolutionary new sound world. New instruments were often promoted outside the normal scope of the bourgeois concert audience, ...
1653–97, Italian Castrato Siface made his singing debut in Rome in 1672. He enjoyed considerable early success in Italy and created a sensation in Venice as Syphax in Cavalli’s Sciopine affricano (‘Scipio Africanus’, 1685). Siface became so identified with the part that ‘Syphax’ became his nickname. Siface was taken up by many important personalities, including ex-Queen Christina of Sweden ...
1760–1842, Italian The Italian composer Luigi Cherubini studied in Florence, Bologna and Milan, first writing church music, and then, in 1779, producing his first operas. By 1787, when he settled in Paris, he had written 13 operas, but nothing, as yet, that was innovatory. This changed when his Démophon (1788) ...
‘Medea’ Composed: 1797 Premiered: 1797, Paris Libretto by François Benoit Hoffman, after Pierre Corneille Act I At the palace of Corinth, Glaucé, daughter of King Créon, prepares for her approaching marriage to Jason. She fears the wrath of Médée, a sorceress who helped Jason to steal the Golden Fleece from Cholcis. Médée betrayed her family to ...
1794–1858, Italian The Italian bass Luigi Lablache enjoyed a career lasting over 40 years. He possessed a magnificent, sonorous voice with a wide range, impressive stage presence and the ability to sing both comic and tragic roles, many of which he created. His repertoire was vast and included Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, King ...
1792–1868, Italian By the age of 14, Gioachino Rossini could play the violin, cello, harpsichord and horn, and had written a buffo-style cavatina, a short solo song. In 1806, Rossini was studying at the Bologna Conservatory and wrote his first opera, Demetrio e Polibio. The next year he produced his first professional work ...
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