Aida, set in Ancient Egypt, was not composed to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, as has often been suggested. Nor was it commissioned by the Khedive of Egypt to mark the opening of the Cairo Opera House that same year. It happened that the French Egyptologist, Auguste Mariette, keeper of monuments to ...
‘The Italian Girl in Algiers’ Despite its North African setting, Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri was a resolutely Italian opera. Unlike Aida (1871), in which Verdi took care to evoke the mysterious atmosphere of ancient Egypt, Rossini made no particular attempt to reflect the exotic nature of Algiers. However, given the good-natured harum-scarum fun of this two-act comic opera ...
almost claustrophobic intensity. Long considered Verdi’s greatest opera and his most outstanding achievement, Otello was written at a time when the composer believed he had reached his peak with Aida and was being upstaged by Wagner’s Teutonic grandeur, which was dominating the European music scene. Verdi was wrong on both counts. His Otello fulfilled Wagner’s concept of a ‘total ...
at La Scala; her subsequent Italian career included her first Turandot, at Brescia in 1926. At Covent Garden, 1928–39 and 1947–48, she sang not only Turandot and Aida among Italian roles, but also Wagner’s Sieglinde and Isolde. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities | Roberto Alagna | Contemporary | Classical ...
success after another in Venice, Milan, Chicago, New York, London, Buenos Aires, Madrid and St Petersburg. Among Tamagno’s numerous roles were Radamès in Verdi’s Aida, Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, Samson in Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila and Gabriele Adorno in the revised version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, in 1881. Introduction | High ...
Lohengrin. Three years later, he was at the Hofoper in Berlin as Don Carlo in Verdi’s Ernani. He also sang Don Giovanni in Mozart’s opera, Amonasro in Verdi’s Aida and the title roles in Hans Heiling by Heinrich Marschner (1795–1861) and Verdi’s Falstaff. Betz created the role of Hans Sachs in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, singing it ...
and at 14 played the organ. He became interested in opera at an early age and when he was 18 he walked the 20 miles to Pisa, where Verdi’s Aida was being performed. He studied first in Lucca then, with the aid of a scholarship, at the Milan Conservatory. Throughout his student days he was acutely short of ...
Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi 1920–26 Turandot, last scene completed by Franco Alfano Timeline 1858 Giacomo Puccini born, Lucca, Italy 1876 First contact with opera after hearing Aida 1880 Goes to study at Milan Conservatory 1883 Enters his first opera Le villi in competition, does not win 1884 Two-act version of Le villi performed at Teatro dal ...
1885–1969, Italian Born in a small Italian village, Martinelli scaled the heights of operatic fame, becoming Caruso’s successor in verismo repertoire at the Met. After making his operatic debut in the title role of Verdi’s Ernani, he achieved his breakthrough when engaged by Puccini to sing Dick Johnson in the 1911 European premiere of La fanciulla del ...
, Verdi, aged 40, eclipsed all others as the most highly acclaimed living composer of opera. However, he was not sitting on his laurels. In 1871, Aida, which was set in ancient Egypt, had its premiere in Cairo and although his Requiem (1873), which he wrote after the death of the Italian poet and patriot ...
, was London’s first Manrico in Il trovatore. The soprano Teresa Stolz, the first Italian Elisabeth in Don Carlos, Leonora in the revised La forza del destino and Aida, sang in the first performance of the Manzoni Requiem. In the revised version of Simon Boccanegra at La Scala in 1881, the tenor Francesco Tamagno sang Gabriele Adorno ...
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). ...
in Wagner’s Tannhäuser for Deutsche Oper Berlin catapulted her into the international arena, yet her repertoire has remained eclectic. Some of her memorable performances include the title roles of Aida and Alceste, Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos, Cassandra and Didon (Les Troyens), Judith in Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Schoenberg’s half-spoken, half-sung monodrama Erwartung. Introduction | Modern Era ...
Marion Anderson from singing at Washington’s Constitution Hall in 1939 – more than 40 years later, Price dedicated her performance there to Anderson. Her association with the role of Aida began in 1957 and ended in 1985, when she retired from the stage. A perfect instrument for Verdi roles, Price was one of the great singers of the ...
Scenes after Pushkin’, hints at its special character. He wanted to get as far away as possible from what he saw as the cardboard cut-outs of a work like Verdi’s Aida and to portray instead ‘ordinary, simple universal sensations far removed from high tragedy and theatricality’. To realize his dream, he needed young singers close to the tender ages ...
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...
CURATED
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.