‘Alceste, or the Triumph of Alcide’ Composed in 1674, Lully’s Alceste, ou le triomphe d’Alcide, a tragédie lyrique with a prologue and five acts, had a double link with ancient Greek culture. The libretto, by Philippe Quinault, was based on Alcestis, a tragedy by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides that in turn derived ...
1632–87, French Jean-Baptiste Lully was a French composer with an Italian background. He was born in Florence on 28 November 1632. His original name, later gallicized, was Giovanni Battista Lulli. In 1646, aged 14, he was placed with a noble household in Paris as a singer, dancer and violinist, and he became familiar with ...
(Zhan Ba-test’ Lü-le’) 1632–87 French composer Lully was an Italian by birth, but as a youth he accompanied the Chevalier de Guise to Paris, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1653, Lully danced with the young King Louis XIV in the Ballet de la nuit, and it was from this point that he began ...
1622–73, French The playwright, actor and impresario Molière was the brightest star in seventeenth-century French theatre, writing plays that lived on long after his time, some of them in the form of operas. In all, 17 of Molière’s plays have been turned into 75 operas since 1706, over half of them in the twentieth century. ...
1830–1914, French The French baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure – impressive on stage, with fine vocal discipline and strong dramatic sense – made his debut at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1852, singing Pygmalion in Galathée by Victor Massé (1822–84). Faure continued singing at the Opéra-Comique until 1859. Meanwhile, he taught singing at the Paris Conservatoire 1857–60. He performed ...
Castor et Pollux was considered Rameau’s greatest achievement after he revised it in 1754. The storyline revolves around the generosity of one twin brother willing to forsake his unique immortality so that the other may live, but their complex situation creates strong portraits of inner conflict and tension between other characters, Rameau conveys the magical forces of Hades, ...
Rameau’s magnificent Hippolyte et Aricie is a rare example of a major composer’s first attempt at opera also being one of his greatest achievements. However, Rameau was nearly 50 years old and already a respected and experienced musician when he composed it, and had evidently been contemplating the project for several years. The impressive literary quality of Pellegrin’s libretto ...
‘The Gallant Indians’ Composed in 1735, Les indes galantes is an opéra-ballet in which each act has its own setting and self-contained plot. Its four entrées include a scene set in a Turkish garden, Incas worshipping the sun in a Peruvian desert, a flower festival at a Persian market and a village ceremony in a North American forest. ...
(Zhan Bar-ra’-ke) 1928–73 French composer A pupil of Olivier Messiaen (1908–92), Barraqué was profoundly affected by his relationship with Michel Foucault. He also shared many of Boulez’s concerns and believed in the necessity of serial technique, but did not follow the general trend of the 1950s into total serialism. Barraqué’s vision of music was far grander and he shared Ludwig ...
1889–1963, French Cocteau was an exceptional and prodigious talent. Inspired by everything around him, he gained an international reputation as a playwright, novelist, poet, artist, opera librettist and filmmaker. After designing the set for Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande (1926), Cocteau wrote his first libretto for a Stravinsky opera-oratorio. Based on the Oedipus trilogy of ...
1850–1925, Polish Jean de Reszke was a Polish tenor whose handsome face and fine physique suited him for romantic roles. He made his debut at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in 1874, not as a tenor, but in the baritone part of Alfonso in Donizetti’s La favorite. He continued to sing baritone roles until he re-trained and ...
(Zhan Moo-tôn’) c. 1459–1522 French composer Having held various church jobs in France, Mouton joined the French royal court in 1502 and remained there for the rest of his life. Many of his motets are occasional works – written for a particular personage or special event that was taking place at court. He was probably among the musicians present at the ...
(Vocals, b. 1933) Born Ollie Imogene Shepard, in St. Paul’s Valley, Oklahoma, Shepard was a pioneer whose honky-tonk earthiness and musical topicality broke new ground in the 1950s. A long-time member of the Grand Ole Opry, she first broke into the charts with ‘A Dear John Letter’ in 1953 and followed this with a string of ...
(Zhan Se-bal-yoos) 1865–1957 Finnish composer When Jean (Johan) Sibelius, Finland’s greatest composer, was born on 8 December 1865 at Hämeenlinna, his homeland had been ruled by Russia since Napoleon snatched it from Sweden. As a child he composed and played the violin, but he was 14 before taking up the instrument seriously. He enrolled in 1886 at the ...
1768–1837, French The French baritone Jean-Blaise Martin gave his name to the voice type termed baryton-Martin, through his ability to extend his voice range into falsetto mode by an extra octave. This sort of voice, in which the baritone’s normal top notes shade into the falsetto, is classed as a ‘high baritone’ and enables singers to take ...
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.