SEARCH RESULTS FOR: Luigi%20Illica
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In the twentieth century, some musicians became interested in inventing new acoustic instruments that could take music beyond the tuning systems, scales and harmonic language inherent in the instruments commonly played in western classical music. Creating new instruments created a revolutionary new sound world. New instruments were often promoted outside the normal scope of the bourgeois concert audience, ...

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins

‘Medea’ Composed: 1797 Premiered: 1797, Paris Libretto by François Benoit Hoffman, after Pierre Corneille Act I At the palace of Corinth, Glaucé, daughter of King Créon, prepares for her approaching marriage to Jason. She fears the wrath of Médée, a sorceress who helped Jason to steal the Golden Fleece from Cholcis. Médée betrayed her family to ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Premiered: 1647, Paris Libretto by Francesco Buti Prologue The figure of Vittoria (Victory) and French soldiers sing of their victories and the power of their kingdom. Act I Euridice and her father, Endimione, consult a soothsayer regarding her forthcoming wedding to Orfeo. The omens are bad. Orfeo and Euridice celebrate their love for each other, while Aristeo ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Loo-e’-ge Bok-ker-e’-ne) 1743–1805 Italian composer The son of a musician in Lucca, Boccherini was trained by his father and in Rome as a composer and cellist. He made his debut at the age of 13 and undertook several journeys to play in Vienna. In 1766 he went on a concert tour which took him to Paris and Madrid, where he ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Loo-e’-je Ka-roo-be’-ne) 1760–1842 Italian composer and teacher Cherubini was a dominant figure in French musical life, particularly as a composer of operas, but also as director of the Paris Conservatoire. He studied with Giuseppe Sarti in Bologna and Milan (1778–81) before returning to his native Florence. After a brief period in London, where he composed La finta principessa (‘The ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1760–1842, Italian The Italian composer Luigi Cherubini studied in Florence, Bologna and Milan, first writing church music, and then, in 1779, producing his first operas. By 1787, when he settled in Paris, he had written 13 operas, but nothing, as yet, that was innovatory. This changed when his Démophon (1788) ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Loo-e’-je Dal’-la-pek’-ko-la) 1904–75 Italian composer Of the Italian composers of his generation, Dallapiccola was the first to adopt the radical new ideas based in Schoenbergian serialism; he was also the only one who actively opposed the regime of the dictator Benito Mussolini in Italy. His use of serialism is lyrical and Italianate. Many of his works are vocal, often subtle ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1904–75, Italian At the forefront of Italian serialism, Dallapiccola was inspired to compose after attending a 1924 performance of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (‘Moonstruck Pierrot’, 1912); he made a complete analysis of Schoenberg’s 12-tone system and used this when writing his first one-act opera, Volo di notte (‘Night flight’, 1940), based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s book Vol de nuit. ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1857–1919, Italian At the beginning of the 1890s, librettist Illica began an association with the Ricordi publishing house that resulted in collaborations with the most prominent Italian opera composers over the next 20 years. Most significant was his work with Puccini. Although they had a tempestuous relationship, it resulted in Manon Lescaut and, in collaboration with Giuseppe ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1794–1858, Italian The Italian bass Luigi Lablache enjoyed a career lasting over 40 years. He possessed a magnificent, sonorous voice with a wide range, impressive stage presence and the ability to sing both comic and tragic roles, many of which he created. His repertoire was vast and included Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, King ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Loo-e’-je No’-no) 1924–90 Italian composer Nono studied with Hermann Scherchen (1891–1966) and through him attended Darmstadt, where met Stockhausen and embraced the principles of integral serialism, exploiting them idiosyncratically but powerfully and expressively in Il canto sospeso (‘The Song Unsung’, 1955–6), which sets the words of Resistance fighters killed by the Nazis. Nono’s political commitment was as strongly evident ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

c. 1597–1653, Italian Luigi Rossi served for a time at the Neapolitan court before joining the Borghese family in his native city of Rome in 1621. Twenty years later, he entered the service of the Barberini family, who were influential patrons of opera. Rossi’s first opera, Il palazzo incantato (‘The Enchanted Palace’, 1642), received its first performance ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Loo-e’-je Rôs’-se) 1598–1653 Italian composer Rossi was one of the early Roman composers of opera and cantata. After studying in Naples he entered the service of the Borghese family in Rome in 1621. In 1633 he was appointed organist of S Luigi dei Francesi and in 1641 moved to the Barberinis. His first opera, Il palazzo incantato (‘The Enchanted Palace’), was ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

The dominant style in art at the start of the classical era was the Rococo (from rocaille, ‘shellwork’). Created in early eighteenth-century France, its leading figures in the graphic arts were Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. The closest musical analogue is not Mozart (as once was traditionally argued) but François Couperin (1668–1733) – the late Baroque generation, in ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Futurism was an artistic movement of the early twentieth century. Its influences spread to all areas of the arts, including literature and the visual arts as well as music. The main force behind the movement was the Italian writer Filippo Marinetti, who published the definitive manifesto of the Futurists in 1909. With declared enthusiasm for modernity and new inventions ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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