Verdi’s dark, brooding opera Simon Boccanegra had a tortuous history before 24 March 1881, when its final version premiered at La Scala, Milan. Verdi composed Boccanegra in 1857, but the Venetian audience reacted coolly; an anti-Verdi claque sabotaged the performance and a false rumour spread, claiming that Verdi had written the libretto and made a mess of ...
(Se’-mon Mi’-er) 1763–1845 German composer Mayr grew up in Bavaria and taught himself to play most string and wind instruments, before moving to Venice, where he studied composition with Ferdinando Bertoni. Mayr composed numerous operas, many for La Scala, Milan. Although his works exhibit diverse stylistic elements, his melodic and harmonic expression was rooted in late Neapolitan ...
1663–1745, French Simon-Joseph Pellegrin was a monk who sailed twice with the French fleet to the Orient, and who put into verse Biblical texts that were sung to music by Lully and Campra at the royal convent at St Cyr. Pellegrin provided libretti for many composers, including Campra and Desmarets, but his best-known works are Jephté, set ...
1710–92, French Charles Favart became director of the Comédie-Italienne in Paris in 1758. His 11-year term as director was evidently important in the theatre’s history, for in 1871 it was renamed Salle Favart. As a librettist, Favart’s output was prodigious: he wrote 150 libretti for composers such as Gluck, Philidor and Grétry. Favart’s forte was the comic ...
1763–1845, German The German-born composer Simon Mayr was studying in Italy when the patron who supported him died and he faced an uncertain future. Piccinni encouraged him to write opera and Mayr took his advice. Mayr’s first opera, Saffo (1794), attracted several commissions, but his great breakthrough came when Ginevra di Scozia (‘Ginevra of Scotland’, 1801) was performed ...
1916–2006, Canadian One of the great Mozartian tenors of his age, Simoneau married French-Canadian soprano Pierrette Alarie. They went to Europe, where he sang at the Paris Opéra, Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne and London’s Covent Garden. In 1952, Simoneau sang in a historic recording of Oedipus Rex, with Stravinsky conducting and librettist Jean Cocteau as narrator. ...
b. 1955 English conductor Rattle won the John Player International Conductors’ Competition in 1974. After posts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, he was principal conductor and music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, 1980–97. In 1999 he was appointed Abbado’s successor, from 2002, at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. ...
b. 1959 English baritone Following a period with Scottish Opera (1988–94), he made his debuts at Glyndebourne and La Scala in 1995, and at the Metropolitan Opera in 1996. Much in demand in for the Mozart baritone roles (recording Don Giovanni for Abbado), he was also praised as Britten’s Billy Budd at Covent Garden (in 2000) and on record (under ...
(Vocal duo, 1957–71, 1981–83, 2003–04, 2009–10) As ‘Tom and Jerry’, Paul Simon (vocals, guitar) and Art Garfunkel (vocals) had a minor US Hot 100 success as teenagers in 1957 with ‘Hey Schoolgirl’. Both attempted to forge solo careers, which took Simon to the UK where he became a reliable draw in the country’s folk clubs. ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1941) Paul Simon (1972) was an eclectic affair followed a year later by the more straightforward There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. His third solo album Still Crazy After All These Years (1975) featured a reunion with Art Garfunkel on the duet ‘My Little Town’. The singer’s most popular and influential work was Graceland (1986), which utilized African ...
1914–93 Bulgarian bass Christoff made his debut in Italy in La bohème (1946). He was most famous as Boris Godunov in the Rimsky-Korsakov version of the Mussorgsky opera. He made his US debut in San Francisco in 1956 in the same role. His Verdi roles included Philip II in the Giulini-Visconti Don Carlos at Covent Garden in 1958, and as ...
1810–76, Italian Although Francesco Maria Piave’s fame rests on his libretti written for Verdi, he produced texts for several other composers of the Romantic era. These included Michael Balfe, Antonio Cagnoni (1828–96), Saverio Mercadante (1795–1870) and Giovanni Pacini (1796–1867): Piave supplied Pacini with the libretto for his Lorenzino de’ Medici (1845), which was first performed in Venice. By ...
1850–1905, Italian The Italian tenor Francesco Tamagno was idolized for his powerful voice and dramatic delivery. Tamagno thrilled his many admirers with his effortless top C, which not all tenors were able to reach, and his passionate on-stage performances. His voice was described as ‘enduring brass’. Otello, the eponymous hero of Verdi’s penultimate opera, which he ...
1813–1901, Italian Giuseppe Verdi was that rarity, a modest, diffident genius. He was so unaware of his powers that he called himself ‘the least erudite among past and present composers’. Born in Le Roncole, near Busseto, Parma, Verdi was eight when his talents were noticed by a local merchant and patron of music, Antonio ...
(Joo’-sep-pa Ver’-de) 1813–1901 Italian composer Verdi composed 28 operas over a period of 54 years. In his native Italy he became immensely popular early in his career, and by the time he died he was idolized as the greatest Italian composer of the nineteenth century. In other musical centres of Europe it took a little longer for Verdi’s genius to be ...
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