1739–93, French The French tenor and composer Joseph Legros made his debut at the Opéra in Paris, singing Titon in Titon et Aurore by Jean-Joseph Mondonville (1711–72). Subsequently he built up a considerable repertoire of roles in operas by Lully, Rameau, Grétry and Gluck, among others. One of his greatest roles was as Gluck’s Orpheus – ...
(Yo’-han Yo’-sef Fooks) 1660–1741 German composer, organist and theorist There are large gaps in the biographical knowledge of Fux. It is almost certain that he was born into a peasant family somewhere in Germany, but precisely where he acquired his musical skills remains a mystery. Real knowledge of the composer begins from 1698, when Emperor Leopold I appointed Fux ...
(Fran-swa Zho-zef’ Gu-sek’) 1734–1829 Belgian (French) composer Born in what is now the French-speaking part of Belgium, Gossec spent most of his career in Paris working in the different roles of theatre composer, violinist and director of musical organizations. These organizations included the Concert Spirituel, the Ecole Royale de Chant and (after the Revolution) the band of the Garde ...
(Fränts Yo’-sef Hi’-dan) 1732–1809 Austrian composer Joseph Haydn was the most celebrated musician of the late-eighteenth century and the first of the great triumvirate (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven) of Viennese classical composers. A tireless explorer and innovator, he did more than anyone to develop the dramatic potential of the sonata style. When he composed his cheerful F major Missa brevis ...
(Yo’-zef Yo’-a-khem) 1831–1907 German violinist Joachim studied with Ferdinand David, leader of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, where he made his debut in 1843. After a spell as leader of the Court Orchestra in Weimar under Liszt (1850–51), he distanced himself from Liszt’s ‘New German School’ in favour of Brahms’ classicism. Appointed violinist to the king in Hanover (1852), he ...
(Vocals, dancer, 1906–75) Born Freda Josephine McDonald, the St. Louis-born entertainer danced in the 1921 Sissle/Blake musical Shuffle Along before gaining a bigger role in their Chocolate Dandies in 1924, leading to appearances at the Cotton Club. The following year, she introduced ‘le jazz hot’ to Paris in La Revue Négre (also featuring Sidney Bechet) with ...
1660–1741, German Fux studied music at Graz, and became a talented organist and church musician. He probably travelled to Italy during the 1680s, and his a capella Masses influenced by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–94) attracted the admiring attention of Emperor Leopold I in 1698. Based in Vienna for the remainder of his life, Fux was ...
1663–1745, French Simon-Joseph Pellegrin was a monk who sailed twice with the French fleet to the Orient, and who put into verse Biblical texts that were sung to music by Lully and Campra at the royal convent at St Cyr. Pellegrin provided libretti for many composers, including Campra and Desmarets, but his best-known works are Jephté, set ...
1732–1809, Austrian The operatic career of Joseph Haydn spanned four decades, from his lost German Singspiel Der krumme Teufel (‘The Crooked Devil’, 1753) to his Orpheus opera L’anima del filosofo (‘The Philosopher’s Soul’), composed for London in 1791 but not performed there (or anywhere else) during the composer’s lifetime. In between, he composed some 20 operas (several lost) ...
‘Fidelity Rewarded’ Composed: 1780 Premiered: 1781, Eszterháza Libretto by Giambattista Lorenzi Act I Amaranta reads an inscription in the Temple of Diana describing how two lovers are to be offered to a sea monster every year until a hero sacrifices himself. Melibeo, the High Priest, chooses the victims and everyone has to be careful not to cross him. ...
1807–86, Bohemian The Bohemian tenor Joseph Tichatschek made his debut at the Kärntnertor Theatre in Vienna in 1833, as the farmer, Raimbaut, in Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable. After a year, 1837, at Graz, Tichatschek found a regular berth at Dresden, where he sang between 1838 and 1870. He also performed at the Drury ...
1892–1973 American violinist Born in Hungary, Szigeti made his Berlin debut in 1905. He lived in England 1907–13, where he gave many concerts. In the 1920s he toured the Soviet Union, and made his US debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1925. He was a keen advocate of contemporary music: Bartók, Bloch and Prokofiev wrote works for ...
‘Orpheus and Eurydice’ When the Emperor Franz I and his retinue attended the premiere of Orfeo ed Euridice at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 5 October 1762, they were doubtless expecting a lightweight pastoral entertainment. The occasion – the emperor’s name day – and the opera’s billing as an azione teatrale (literally ‘theatrical action’) promised as much. What they got ...
1714–74, Italian Jommelli scored successes with his first operas, L’errore amoroso (‘The Loving Mistake’, 1737) and Ricimero (1740) and Astianatte (1741), and before long these and other operas had won him recognition as an eminent composer. Jommelli’s services were eagerly sought and he wrote operas for Rome, where he was appointed maestro di cappella at St Peter’s in ...
Two crucial figures in Gluck’s operatic career were the controller of the Viennese theatres Count Durazzo and the Francophile poet and librettist Raniero de’ Calzabigi. Both were intent on the reform and revitalization of Italian opera. In Gluck they found their perfect musical collaborator. Some of Gluck’s Italian stage works had already begun to integrate solos and chorus, but it ...
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