(Vocal/instrumental group, 2000–06, 2011–present) The Darkness – Justin Hawkins (vocals), Dan Hawkins (guitar), Ed Graham (drums) and Richie Edwards (bass) – are the most unlikely rock stars. Good looks and credibility take second place to stadiums full of fans and steely rock riffs transplanted straight from their heroes, Queen. After wittily titled singles and Christmas offerings, debut ...
and Leonore remains central, the individual characterization becomes more idealized and stereotyped. The human element is now subordinate to the opera’s moral message; and the prisoners, released from darkness into daylight, become archetypes of oppressed humanity. Fidelio in its final form is above all a celebration of abstract ideals dear to Beethoven: freedom, heroic courage in the ...
‘The Troubadour’ Of all Verdi’s operas, Il trovatore (‘The Troubadour’) provides the fullest panorama of melodies, each of them memorable in its own right. Il trovatore did not have the subtle characterization of Rigoletto, and suffered from an all but impenetrable plot, but nonetheless became as frequently played. The Miserere (meaning ‘Have Mercy’) sung by a chorus ...
Kátya belongs to the final decade of Janáček’s work and was inspired by his muse, Kamila Stösslova. She was the magnificent obsession who received a steady stream of letters from the composer up until his death, some of them confirming that Kátya was written for her. The opera was based on Ostrovsky’s drama The Storm, which concerns a ...
night, and reveals the true identities of the ‘nuns’. The count insists on joining the countess in her bedroom, not realizing that Isolier is also there. In the darkness, he takes Isolier’s hand. Trumpets announce the return of the crusaders and the count realizes that Isolier has tricked him. The count and his associates flee and the household ...
signed and Sharpless leaves. Butterfly’s uncle, the Bonze, curses her for renouncing her religion. Amid the uproar, Pinkerton orders the guests to leave and comforts Butterfly. As darkness falls, Suzuki helps Butterfly change out of her wedding dress. Left together, Butterfly confesses her doubts about marrying a barbarian, but she loved Pinkerton at first sight. ...
descent to Hades to rescue his wife Eurydice and pared it down to essentials. And from the solemn opening chorus of mourning, through the elementally moving contrast between Stygian darkness and dazzling light in Act II, to Orpheus’s famous climactic lament, ‘Che farò’ (‘What shall I do without Eurydice ?’), Gluck’s music makes its effects with swift, ...
Pelléas survives because it challenges its interpreters to peel away layers and discover new depths. Its story can be written on the back of a postage stamp: brother marries girl; other brother falls in love with her; brother kills brother; girl dies. But of what ? Her wound would not have killed a sparrow, we are told. It is the ...
the marriage of Lyudmila to the knight Ruslan. Her rejected admirers Farlaf and Ratmir are also present. As Lyudmila’s father Svyetozar blesses the couple, a thunderbolt is heard and darkness falls. When the light returns, Lyudmila has vanished. Her father offers half his kingdom and Lyudmila’s hand in marriage to whoever saves her. Farlaf, Ratmir and Ruslan all ...
pervades the work both musically and dramatically. Puccini’s use of the Wagnerian technique of leitmotif allowed him to introduce Scarpia’s threatening presence before he is seen on stage. Amongst the darkness, though, are moments of levity and great beauty, such as Tosca’s aria ‘Vissi d’arte’ (‘I Live for Art’). Composed: 1898–99 Premiered: 1900, Teatro Costanzi, Rome ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1949) Hailed as the new Dylan after two albums, Springsteen fully realized his potential with the widescreen Born To Run (1975). Managerial problems delayed Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978), a more sombre but no less compelling work. The double album The River appeared in 1980 followed by the stark, pessimistic Nebraska in ...
his life. Nature now stimulated his composition as Finnish culture and politics had done earlier. He reached an extreme of austerity and ‘modernism’ in the Fourth Symphony, whose brooding darkness may have reflected a diagnosis and operation for throat cancer (Sibelius was a heavy cigar-smoker). Its powerful formal concentration remained a feature of all his subsequent music: tone-poems like Luonnotar ...
each of the subsequent movements. The Fifth Symphony is also a prime example of an overall trajectory that spans the entire work, progressing from minor to major, from darkness to light, from the anguish of the opening movement to the triumph of the finale. Beethoven was the first composer to be fully aware of, and to solve ...
the gymnastic requirements of the bel canto repertoire. Indeed, he fitted into a vocal category popular in the nineteenth century termed baritenore. Battistini’s voice was also capable of a darkness and edge that made him ideally suited to his most famous roles including Rigoletto, Germont and Eugene Onegin. Introduction | Turn of the Century | Opera Personalities | Enrico ...
The history of post-war jazz tracked the musical development of Miles Dewey Davis III so closely that it is tempting to see the trumpeter as the orchestrator of each of the most significant stylistic shifts of the era. With the notable exception of free jazz, Miles seemed to trigger a new seismic shift in the music with each passing decade. ...
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David Bowie
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