1834–1902, Bohemian Teresa Stolz made her debut at Tbilisi, Georgia in 1857 and subsequently appeared in Odessa, Constantinople, Bologna, Milan (1865–72), Cairo, Vienna, St Petersburg and Paris. Stolz was a beautiful woman with a powerful voice, ‘diamond-like’ in its clarity and purity. Her phrasing was extraordinary for she could sustain the breath supply ...
b. 1935, Spanish Combining a rich, sensual voice with a refined onstage presence, Herbert von Karajan called Berganza ‘the best mezzo-soprano in the world’. After studying at the Royal Conservatoire in Madrid, she made her operatic debut at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. This led to invitations from the world’s leading opera houses. A Rossini specialist, Berganza’s recitals ...
b. 1935 Spanish mezzo-soprano Berganza made her debut as Mozart’s Dorabella at Aix-en-Provence, and sang Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro) at Glyndebourne the next year. Her roles included Sesto (La clemenza di Tito, ‘Titus’ Clemency’), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and, later, Carmen, but she was most sought after for Rossini heroines. Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities ...
1824–84, Czech In 1866, the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana won a national competition with his first of eight operas, The Brandenburgers in Bohemia. In this work, written for the National Theatre in Prague where he was conductor, he revealed his skill in writing orchestral music, his strong dramatic sense and his understanding of the cadences ...
(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 ...
The word ‘Baroque’ is derived from the Portuguese barrocco, a term for a misshapen pearl, and it was still with this sense of something twisted that it was first applied – to the period between about 1600 and 1750 – in the nineteenth century. In 1768, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote: ‘a Baroque music is that in which the harmony ...
Composed: 1834–37 Premiered: 1838, Paris Libretto by Léon de Wailly and Auguste Barbier, after Cellini Act I The Pope has commissioned Cellini to make a statue of Perseus. Balducci, the treasurer, is annoyed; he wants the commission to go to Fieramosca, who he also wants to marry his daughter Teresa; she is in love with Cellini. ...
Composed: 1927–28 Premiered: 1934, Hartford, Connecticut Libretto by Gertrude Stein with scenario by Maurice Grosser Background The saints are introduced. Note that St Teresa of Avila is sung by two performers (soprano and contralto). Act I Seven tableaux involving St Teresa II, described as a ‘Pageant, or Sunday School Entertainment’, are revealed behind a curtain on the ...
‘The Sleepwalker’ Vincenzo Bellini’s two-act opera La sonnambula, which had a pastoral background, was first produced at the Teatro Carcano in Milan on 6 March 1831. The story derived from a comédie-vaudeville of 1819 and a ballet-pantomime of 1827, both part-written by the French dramatist Eugène Scribe. The title role, Amina, was created by Giuditta Pasta ...
1885–1935, Austrian The composer of just two operas, Berg was a man who took atonality and stretched it to its expressionistic limits. While Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) are often referred to as the First Viennese School, the so-called Second Viennese School consists of Berg together with fellow student Anton Webern (1883–1945) and their ...
b. 1966 Italian mezzo-soprano Bartoli made her debut at Verona in 1987. Her most celebrated role is Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, which she has sung in Cologne, Catania, Schwetzingen, Zürich and Barcelona. Other parts include Cenerentola (Rossini), Cherubino and Dorabella (Mozart) and Haydn’s Eurydice. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1996 as Despina ...
Given the long tradition of regarding the keyboard as a suitable and attractive instrument for a woman, it is not surprising that it was mostly as pianists that women made their names as professional virtuoso soloists in the early nineteenth century. The leading female pianist was undoubtedly Clara Schumann, who was acclaimed as one of Europe’s leading players throughout ...
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