Bayreuth in Bavaria had had an opera house, the Margraves’ Opera House, for 130 years before King Ludwig II contributed towards the construction of the Festspielhaus – the Festival Theatre. The foundation stone was laid on 22 May 1872, and the 1,345-seat theatre opened four years later (it has since been repeatedly enlarged and now seats 1 ...
some distance away in the future and simultaneously casting round for an alternative venue, where he could perform the four-part cycle free from royal interference. He finally settled on Bayreuth and after endless difficulties and delays staged the first complete cycle in his own specially designed Festival Theatre between 13 and 17 August 1876. It had always been his intention ...
age. The work was part of a programme of national and racial regeneration that prompted him to place an embargo on its ‘sacred mysteries’ and to ban all performances outside Bayreuth for a period of thirty years. Described as a Bühnenweihfestspiel (a ‘festival play to consecrate the stage’), it was written with the Bayreuth theatre and its sunken orchestra pit in ...
b. 1959 English conductor and pianist Born in England to Italian parents, he studied in the US, working as assistant conductor at the New York City Opera and in Europe (including at Bayreuth). While music director of Norwegian Opera 1990–92 and La Monnaie, Brussels 1992–2002 he made distinguished debuts at Berlin, Vienna and the Met. He was ...
1844–1918, Austrian Amalie Materna, the Austrian soprano, sang Brünnhilde at the first performance of the complete Der Ring des Nibelungen at Bayreuth in 1876. Wagner was deeply impressed by her performance – so much so that he declared Materna the only woman truly capable of singing the exceptionally demanding role. Materna, a singer of great stamina, ...
many German and Italian roles there before her Glyndebourne debut as Mozart’s Elettra (Idomeneo) in 1951. In the 1950s she became known as a Wagner specialist, singing regularly at Bayreuth 1957–70. She frequently appeared at Covent Garden from 1957, singing Turandot, Leonore (Fidelio) and Elektra, as well as Brünnhilde and Isolde. Her Metropolitan Opera debut was in ...
b. 1924, German An outstanding mezzo-soprano recitalist and concert singer, Ludwig was the daughter of two singers: tenor Anton Ludwig, and contralto Eugenie Besalla-Ludwig, who sang under Herbert von Karajan. Forced into early retirement, Eugenie became her daughter’s voice coach. Making her debut at 18 as Prince Orlovsky in Frankfurt, Ludwig remained there until 1952 ...
Paris Conservatoire 1880 Debussy and soprano Marie-Blance Vasnier become lovers 1884 L’enfant prodigue (‘The Prodigal Son’) wins the Prix de Rome 1885 Goes to Villa Medici, Rome 1888 Visits Bayreuth Festival 1889 Hearing Javanese gamelan music at Paris Exposition has profound effect on him 1891 Becomes friends with Erik Satie 1893 Sees Maurice Maeterlink’s play Pelléas et Mélisande; begins work ...
made his opera debut in Berlin as Posa (Don Carlos) in 1948. The following year he appeared in Vienna and Munich, and in 1952 at Salzburg. He sang at Bayreuth 1954–56, and appeared at Covent Garden in 1965 as Richard Strauss’s Mandryka (Arabella) and in 1967 as Verdi’s Falstaff. He was widely known as a Lieder singer, having ...
under Herbert von Karajan. The maestro heard her singing at a party and engaged her for a part at the opera house. Grümmer’s success led to numerous engagements, including Bayreuth, the Salzburg Festival and Glyndebourne. She sang with all the legendary conductors of her day and became legendary within musical circles for her superlative performances of Donna Anna in ...
(Eng’-el-bârt Hoom’-per-dink) 1854–1921 German composer Humperdinck studied in Cologne with Ferdinand Hiller and joined Wagner’s circle in Bayreuth. He assisted in the publication of Parsifal and was music tutor to Wagner’s son Siegfried, who later praised Hänsel und Gretel (1893) as ‘the most important opera since Parsifal’. Based on a tale by the brothers Grimm, the opera was composed while ...
for his Schumann-influenced compositions. Wagner soon came to dominate the young composer’s artistic thoughts and, following a short visit to him, in January 1881 Humperdinck was invited to Bayreuth to help Wagner with preparation for the first production of Parsifal. Wagner’s musical ideals were antithetical to Humperdinck’s naturally simple and ingenuous style, and they caused a long creative ...
(Âr-nest’ Sho-sôn’) 1855–99 French composer After qualifying in law, Chausson studied with Massenet and Franck at the Paris Conservatoire and absorbed Wagnerian style, attending the Bayreuth premiere of Parsifal on his honeymoon. All three influences pervade his highly polished oeuvre in all genres. Best known are his masterly Symphony in B flat (1889), his sparkling concerto for piano, violin ...
von Leclair led to her concert debut in 1876 and her operatic debut in Dresden two years later, in Il trovatore. For many years she sang at Hamburg and Bayreuth, while also appearing at London’s Covent Garden in Wagnerian roles. Schumann-Heink made her US debut in Chicago in 1898, and between 1899 and 1932 she sang regularly with ...
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 again at Bayreuth in 1889, and took the roles of the Wanderer and Wotan in the first performance of Wagner’s complete Der Ring des Nibelungen. Introduction | High Romantic | Opera Personalities ...
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