Although ostensibly ‘English’, Dido and Aeneas owes its ancestry to Italian and French operatic influences. Although the recitatives follow the rhythms and inflexions of the English language, they were clearly modelled on Italian monody. Purcell followed the already established tradition of taking the plots of operas from ancient myth and legend. This one came from ancient Rome, as the ...
(Singer-songwriter, b. 1981) The daughter of a French poet mother, this singer was born Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong on Christmas Day. She waited on the sidelines while her musician brother, Rollo Armstrong (of the band Faithless), achieved pop success in the mid-1990s. But encouraged after providing vocals for some of his tracks, her own songwriting ...
‘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 ...
London, and made her debut in Smetana’s The Secret in Oxford in 1956. She sang Handel roles early in her career, and made a particular impression as Purcell’s Dido, a role she recorded several times. At Covent Garden, where she first appeared as Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, her roles included Berlioz’s Dido, ...
was the most successful after work with then boyfriend/rapper Jay-Z resulted in the infectious smash hit ‘Crazy In Love’ (2003). Styles & Forms | Twenty-First Century | Rock Personalities | Dido | Twenty-First Century | Rock ...
a comedic romp with a lazy, addictive sample. ‘Stan’, a chillingly self-aware tale of a man driven to murder, supposedly inspired by Eminem, saw its sampling of Dido project her to new levels of fame, such was the growing magnitude of the rapper. The next step for Eminem seemed to be to self-reference, to verbalize the ...
and as a recitalist with the lutenist Anthony Rooley. She has subsequently performed music from all eras up to the time of Mozart and beyond. Her many recordings include Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Handel’s Orlando, Athalia and Messiah, and Hasse’s Cleofide. Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities | Christa Ludwig | Contemporary | Classical ...
Already Purcell had begun to compose, producing his first instrumental music in 1680 and his first songs three years later. Purcell’s first foray into music for the theatre, Dido and Aeneas, was also his first and only true opera, in that it featured music throughout. Although he never wrote another opera as such, Purcell did not ...
suppressed the drama that masques assumed a more dramatic form and English opera could emerge. After the Restoration, performances gradually assumed a more operatic style, but it is Dido and Aeneas – libretto by Nahum Tate and music by Purcell – that is now regarded as the first English opera. Its premise can be seen with hindsight as one ...
Cressida to suit her voice. In 1966, she made her Covent Garden debut in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and performed her first major role at Glyndebourne in Dido and Aeneas. Baker may be best known for her Lieder, which set her apart from her contemporaries. Championing the lesser-known works of Schubert, she recorded for the Hyperion ...
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). ...
had appointed him court composer. Venus and Adonis, in which Charles’s mistress and her daughter took part, showed distinct French influences in the dances. Blow’s opera foreshadowed Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, composed two years later. Blow’s ‘Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell (1696)’, a duet with instrumental accompaniment, eloquently expressed his sadness at the untimely ...
, Blow wrote a single stage work, Venus and Adonis. Incorporating features of French musical drama and the Italian chamber cantata, it was a significant precursor to Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. He also composed an ode on the death of Purcell, whom he succeeded as organist of Westminster Abbey in 1695. Recommended Recording: Venus and Adonis, soloists ...
not take place until the 1950–51 season, when she appeared as Brünnhilde (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Isolde (Tristan und Isolde) and Leonore (Fidelio). Her final operatic performance was in Dido and Aeneas at London’s Mermaid Theatre in 1953. Introduction | Modern Era | Opera Personalities | Renée Fleming | Modern Era | Opera Houses & Companies | The Birth of ...
c. 1696–1730, Italian Vinci studied at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo in Naples between 1708 and 1718, and afterwards made his operatic debut with Lo cecato fauzo (‘The False Blind Man’, 1719). He proceeded to dominate operatic life in Naples, and his Li zite ’ngalera (‘The Lovers on the Galley’, 1722) is the earliest extant comic ...
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.