c. 1620–c. 1660, Italian Singer Anna Renzi created the part of Ottavia, the neglected wife of Emperor Nero in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, in 1642, and she sang many other operatic roles in Venice. Renzi was one of the first female opera singers and also one of the first, if not the first, singers to ...
(Loo’-ka Ma-rents’yo) c. 1553–99 Italian composer Marenzio spent most of his adult life in Rome, in the service of various cardinals and other patrons. Although he composed Masses and motets, his fame rests on his madrigals. In the 1580s he developed the canzonetta style of madrigal, borrowing the clear textures and lively rhythms of the canzonetta but applying them ...
1626–90, Italian Giovanni Legrenzi composed his first operas at Ferrara, where he became maestro di cappella at the Accademia dello Spirito Santo in 1656. He began with Nino il giusto (‘Nino the Just’, 1662) and in the next three years produced Achille in Sciro (1663) and Zenobia e Radamisto (1665). Subsequently, Legrenzi led a nomadic life, travelling ...
active 1719–40, Italian The exceptional soprano Strada is known to have sung in Vivaldi’s La verità in cimento (‘The Truth Tested’, 1720) in Venice in 1721. Between 1724 and 1726 she sang for Vinci, Porpora and Leo at Naples, where she also married the theatre manager Aurelio del Pò. She arrived in London in 1729, where she ...
1785–1838, Austrian This Austrian soprano studied in Vienna with Antonio Salieri. In 1803, she made her debut in Vienna as Juno in Der Spiegel von Arkadien (‘The Mirror of Arcadia’, 1794) by Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766–1803), a one-time pupil of Mozart. In 1805 Milder-Hauptmann created the role of Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio. She was, however, dissatisfied with ...
b. 1971, Russian Soprano Anna Netrebko made her operatic stage debut as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at the Marinsky Theatre, conducted by Valery Gergiev. Netrebko’s repertoire includes a number of bel canto and verismo operas, and she thrives in roles that require great vocal and dramatic commitment; her fearless and flamboyant Violetta (La traviata) being a ...
b. 1971 Russian-Austrian soprano After studies at the Conservatory in St Petersburg, she made her stage debut in 1994 at the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Opera, of which she remains a company member. Her US debut a year later (San Francisco) was followed by appearances at Covent Garden, Salzburg and the Metropolitan Opera (2002). She excels in both Italian ...
(Vocals, b. 1988) Barbados-born R&B sensation Robyn Rihanna Fenty’s rise began midway in the 2000s with her debut album Music Of The Sun (2005). Her second LP A Girl Like Me (2006) made the Top 5 in the US and in the UK, and included hit singles ‘Unfaithful’ and ‘SOS’. Good Girl Gone Bad (2007) became Rihanna’s most successful ...
1574–1620, Italian Composer and tenor Francesco Rasi took part in the first performances of Peri’s Euridice and Caccini’s Rapimento di Cefalo in Florence in 1600. By then he was already an experienced and much-admired performer, after 10 years in the service of aristocratic patrons, including Duke Fernando I of Tuscany before 1594, and, after 1598 the ...
Alcina (composed in 1735) is the most celebrated of Handel’s ‘magic’ operas. Its dynamic situations are compelling and poignant: Handel’s portrayal of an enchanted hero, his brave true love and their evil enemy inspired him to create a particularly fine score that examines intense emotional experiences such as loss, guilt, lust, nostalgia and the restoration of memory. ...
‘The Knight of the Rose’ For the follow-up to Elektra, Strauss declared he wanted to write a Mozart opera. Despite Hofmannsthal’s protests about a light, Renaissance subject set in the past, the librettist soon came up with a scenario that delighted Strauss. The correspondence between librettist and composer was good-natured and respectful. Each made suggestions to the other ...
Composed in 1787 and triumphantly premiered in Prague on 29 October that year, Don Giovanni reworks the old legend of the serial seducer, drawing on the Spanish play by Tirso de Molina (1630) and Molière’s Don Juan (1665). The opera revolves around the tensions of class and sex that were so central to Figaro. Ensembles and propulsive ‘chain’ finales ...
Composed: 1832 Premiered: 1833, Berlin Libretto by Eduard Devrient, after a Bohemian legend Prologue Hans Heiling, the King of the Gnomes, announces that he wishes to marry Anna, a mortal. His mother tries to dissuade him, since he would lose his powers. Act I Anna and her mother Gertrude come to Heiling’s house above ground. ...
‘The Trojans’ Composed: 1856–58 Premiered: 1890, Karlsruhe Libretto by the composer, after the Aeneid by Virgil Act I The Trojans celebrate peace and admire the wooden horse left by the Greeks after the siege. Cassandre (Cassandra), King Priam’s daughter, forsees the fall of Troy. Her husband Chorèbe (Coroebus) urges her to join the celebrations, but she begs ...
Composed: 1866–69, completed by Cui and Rimsky-Korsakov 1870 Premiered: 1872, St Petersburg Libretto set directly to Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin’s verse tragedy Act I Don Juan has been exiled from Madrid for murdering Don Alvaro, the commander. He has now returned in secret, accompanied by his servant Leporello, to see an old flame, the actress Laura. ...
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