1785–1845, Spanish Isabella Colbran, the Spanish soprano, married Gioachino Rossini in 1822 after a seven-year relationship, and sang a series of leading roles that he wrote for her. Colbran specialized in dramatic, tragic roles and having her on hand, as it were, enabled Rossini to write roles in this more serious genre. They included ...
(Jo-ak-ke’-no Ros-se’-ne) 1792–1868 Italian composer Rossini dominated Italian opera during the first half of the nineteenth century, writing nearly 40 operas in less than 20 years. He established new conventions in the genre, and was the first Italian composer to abandon unaccompanied recitative in an attempt to create a more continuous flow in the music. He also developed rhythm and ...
1792–1868, Italian By the age of 14, Gioachino Rossini could play the violin, cello, harpsichord and horn, and had written a buffo-style cavatina, a short solo song. In 1806, Rossini was studying at the Bologna Conservatory and wrote his first opera, Demetrio e Polibio. The next year he produced his first professional work ...
1801–63, French The French soprano Laure Cinti-Damoreau was only 15 when she made her debut at the Théâtre Italien in 1816 in Vicente Martín y Soler’s (1754–1806) 30-year-old opera Una cosa rara (‘A Rare Thing’, 1786). Ten years later, Cinti-Damoreau created several leading roles at the Paris Opéra, for example in Rossini’s La siège de Corinthe (‘The Siege ...
‘Renaissance’ is a French word meaning ‘rebirth’. It has been used since the nineteenth century to describe the period between c. 1300 and 1600. Three hundred years is a long time for a single historical or cultural period, and the strain shows in any attempt to define the term ‘Renaissance’. The cultural phenomenon central to the Renaissance was a revival ...
The vihuela had a waisted body but it cannot be said to have been figure-of-eight shaped, for the inward curve was slight. It was flat both front and back and could have several roses. Like the lute, it carried gut strings in pairs – usually six or seven courses. The fingerboard was crossed by gut frets. More popular in ...
Classical ideals began to emerge and take shape in musical treatises in the late fifteenth century. One of the most famous exponents of this was Johannes Tinctoris (1430–after 1511), who, in his writings, claimed that music had been reborn in the works of John Dunstaple (c. 1390–1453) and his followers around 1440. Also central to Renaissance thinking about music ...
‘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 ...
(An-ton’-yo da Ka-ba-thon’) 1510–66 Spanish keyboard composer and player Blind from birth, Cabezón learnt the organ from an early age and became one of the great keyboard players of his day. He began his career as organist to Queen Isabella. After her death he worked for her children, later attaching himself solely to the future king, Philip II. Cabezón’s ...
1895–1936, Spanish This Spanish contralto made her debut just before her 16th birthday at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The following year she sang Octavian in the Rome premiere of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. She soon became associated with Rossini’s heroines, Angelina, Rosina and Isabella, all of which she sang with irresistible charm and charisma. ...
(Hen’-ri Ven-yov’-ske) 1835–80 Polish composer Wieniawski was a child prodigy; after studies with Massart at the Paris Conservatoire, he was the youngest at 11 years old to graduate with the Gold Medal. He was also influenced by the Belgian School of Charles-Auguste de Bériot and Henri Vieuxtemps, whom he succeeded as professor at the Brussels Conservatory, following a post ...
b. 1934 American mezzo-soprano After three years in Europe, Horne sang Marie (Wozzeck) in San Francisco in 1960, repeating the role in her Covent Garden debut in 1964. She often sang with Sutherland, notably as Arsace in Semiramide (Rossini) and Adalgisa in Norma (Bellini). She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1970 as Adalgisa. She sang many Rossini ...
(Pa’-dro da Es-ko-bär’) c. 1465–c. 1535 Portuguese composer Although Portuguese by birth, Escobar spent his career in Spain, including 10 years in the chapel of Isabella of Aragon and a stint as maestro de capilla at Seville Cathedral. The date of his death is unknown; he was last heard of around 1535. His motet ‘Clamabat autem mulier’ shows him to ...
During the Renaissance, European noblewomen were taught to sing and play particular instruments deemed suitable for them, such as the harp, lute and keyboard. Improvising songs with accompaniment was an important aspect of such music-making but, as in other improvising traditions, few women of this class ever wrote down the music they created, so it ...
The rise of opera in the early Baroque period provided increased musical opportunities for women, especially as singers, but also as composers. One of the earliest female opera singers was Vittoria, who worked for the Medici court in Florence. Her career was overshadowed by that of another Medici employee, the composer and singer Francesca Caccini, who ...
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.